Conquerors conquered

After four years of work, my new book, Conquerors, on the Portuguese voyages of discovery, was officially published yesterday in the UK. I was lucky enough to have a launch in the wonderful surroundings of the Portuguese Embassy - my thanks to the Ambassador for a gracious and highly enjoyable evening. The US edition will be out in December.

The blog resumes

After a lengthy pause...the past few months have been spent exhaustively correcting proofs, writing articles and talks for my new book - 'Conquerors: How Portugal seized the Indian Ocean and forged the First Global Empire' - out on Thursday in the UK - cover to follow shortly. You'll have to wait until December, I'm afraid, if you're in North America.

In the interim I have also just returned from a fortnight talking on  a Zegrahm Expeditions cruise down the Adriatic Coast from Dubrovnik to Malta; on the way tracking the presence of the Venetians in the sea. St Marks's lion is everywhere on the castle walls and doorways of Adriatic towns.

Here are a few random images:



A religious procession in Valletta



A particularly bad tempered Venetian lion on the walls of the town of the island of Hvar, Croatia

Everyone needs a diving helmet from the Split flea market

A small wizard conjures eerie sounds from a three hundred year old brass flute on the ramparts of a castle; behind, the bare hills of Albania - shivers down the spine.


 



The roof of the Emperor Diocletian's mausoleum in his palace in Split