麻豆社

In a special edition of Open Book, Robert Harris talks to Mariella Frostrup about his new novel The Second Sleep, and reflects on 30 years of writing fiction.

The author of 13 bestsellers including Fatherland, Enigma, An Officer and a Spy, and Imperium, Harris' stories have taken us from Ancient Rome to the corridors of Westminster, from an imagined world where Hitler won the War, to the code breakers at Bletchley Park and even into the heart of the Vatican.

Selling over 25 million novels to date, his regular focus on the rise, fall and corrupting influence of power remains consistently relevant today, despite his century hopping.

He explains how his fascination with how civilizations fall has informed much of his work, and why he always has to know how a story ends before he begins.