Book review: Finely tuned historical imagination comes to life in Pax

Tom Holland. Picture Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images

Tom Holland bestrides the writing of popular history about the ancient world like — well, like a colossus. In part, his enormous success is owed to an unfailing eye for telling details in which to ground the grandest narratives.

He opens his latest book, Pax, with two bridges built by and named after Hadrian: One for crossing the Tiber, connecting Rome to the emperor’s own mausoleum on the far bank; the other for crossing the Tyne at the empire’s furthest northern extremity. Both were displays of superpower energy, but Holland also segues them into interesting reflections on Hadrian’s Wall and the wall of ice in A Game of Thrones. As ever, it is a pleasure to trail after Tom Holland, a loquacious, ebullient guide.