Tom Holland (author)

Tom Holland
Born	(1968-01-05) January 5, 1968 Wiltshire, England
Occupation	Author
Language	English
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	University of Cambridge, Queens' College, Cambridge
Genre	Literary fiction, Nonfiction, History
Notable works	Persian Fire Rubicon In the Shadow of the Sword Millenium
Relatives	James Holland
Website
tom-holland.org/

Thomas "Tom" Holland (born 5 January 1968) is an English writer and popular historian who has published several works on topics including classical and medieval history and the origins of Islam. in addition to his writing, he has worked with the BBC to create and host historical television documentaries.

Biography

Early life

Holland was born in Oxfordshire and brought up in the village of Broadchalke near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied English and Latin..

Career

In 2004, Holland was awarded the Hessell-Tiltman Prize, awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content, for his book Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic.

In 2005, James Buchan reviewed Persian Fire positively for The Guardian newspaper, while Paul Cartledge, a professor of Greek history at Cambridge University recommended it for The Independent thus: "If Persian Fire does not win the Samuel Johnson Prize, there is no justice in this world." Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, historian Dominic Sandbrook reported it as "riveting" and praised the "enormous strengths" of the author.

In February 2011, he presented and wrote Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters, a BBC Four television programme exploring the influence of fossils on mythology.

Holland's book on Islam, In the Shadow of the Sword, was called "a work of impressive sensitivity and scholarship" by The Telegraph and "a book of extraordinary richness...For Tom Holland has an enviable gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of the past, without sacrificing factual integrity" by The Independent. But it was criticized by Glen Bowersock of The Guardian as being written in "a swashbuckling style that aims more to unsettle his readers than to instruct them...irresponsible and unreliable".

In August 2012, he produced and presented a documentary for Channel 4 television entitled Islam: The Untold Story, which provoked what Holland described as "a firestorm of death threats" against him for questioning Islamic doctrine that maintains Muhammad founded the religion in Mecca in the 7th century. Holland argued that the first mention of Muhammad does not appear in historical records about Islam until 60 years after his death, and the claim that Mecca was his home does not appear until a century after he died. He concluded that descriptions of Muhammad's home more closely resemble a city in what is now southern Israel and stated that Islamic scholars in the Arab Empire may have chosen Mecca instead in order to have the birthplace of Islam be Arabian and disassociate it from Jewish or Christian heritage. The programme generated more than 1,000 complaints received by Ofcom and Channel 4. A planned screening of Islam: The Untold Story before an audience of historians was cancelled, due to security concerns raised from threats received by Holland as a result of the documentary. Iranian State media called it an insult to Islam and the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) accused Holland of making “baseless assumptions” and engaging in “selective scholarship”.

In 2017, Holland and Channel 4 aired a new documentary titled Isis: The Origins of Violence which drew similar criticism from some in the Muslim community for its contention that the militant terror group ISIS has its origins in Islamic teachings from the Quran. But The Guardian praised the documentary, saying "Isis: The Origins of Violence will start many arguments, but we should be grateful for having broadcasters brave and thoughtful enough to make them."

In 2016, Holland was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Views

Politics

In August 2014, Holland was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

Islam

In March 2015, Holland published a piece entitled "We must not deny the religious roots of Islamic State" in the New Statesman. It argued that the jihadis of ISIS call themselves Islamic and people like Mehdi Hasan ought not to deny it, as he had in the previous week's issue. Holland wrote that "It is not merely coincidence that ISIS currently boasts a caliph, imposes quranically mandated taxes, topples idols, chops the hands off thieves, stones adulterers, executes homosexuals and carries a flag that bears the Muslim declaration of faith."

In May 2015, Holland gave the inaugural Christopher Hitchens Lecture at the Hay Festival, in which he addressed the subject of De-Radicalising Muhammad. In an interview he gave to the literary website Quadrapheme the following month he explained that he wanted the lecture to promote discussion of the way Muhammad's life is interpreted, arguing that his "mythos lies at the core of what is pernicious in the goings-on of Islamic State and other radicals." In the same interview he provided an insight into his own views, asserting that "Liberalism is essentially Christianity-lite, and you can include atheism and secularism in that bracket too—these are basically Christian heresies. The ethics involved are really New Testament ones," and adding later, when asked about resistance to his views on Islam, that "when I write about Islam my anxiety, and the reason I always pull my punches, isn’t that I’m afraid I’ll be killed, it’s that I’m afraid to be drummed out of the liberal club."

Personal life

Holland lives in London with his wife and two daughters. He is a keen cricket fan and an opening bowler for the Authors XI cricket team. He has written about receiving batting training from England captain Alastair Cook, and once hit a six.

Books

Series

• The Vampyre: Being the True Pilgrimage of George Gordon, Sixth Lord Byron (1995), ISBN 0-316-91227-1 (published in the US as Lord of the Dead)
• Supping with Panthers (1996), ISBN 0-316-87622-4 (published in the US as Slave of My Thirst)

Novels

• Attis (1995), ISBN 0-7490-0213-1
• Deliver Us from Evil (1997), ISBN 0-316-88248-8
• The Sleeper in the Sands (1998), ISBN 0-316-64480-3
• The Bonehunter (2001), ISBN 0-316-64819-1

Short fiction

• The Poison in the Blood (2006), ISBN 0-349-11964-3

Plays

• The Importance of Being Frank (first professional performance 1991, text published 1997), ISBN 0-9530587-1-9

Non-fiction

• Athelstan: The Making of England. Allen Lane. 2016. ISBN 978-0-241-18781-4.
• Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar. New York: Random House. 2015. ISBN 978-0-385-53784-1.
• In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World. New York: Random House. 2012. ISBN 978-1-408-70007-5.
• Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom. New York: Random House. 2008. ISBN 978-0-307-27870-8.
• Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West. New York: Random House. 2005. ISBN 978-0-307-27948-4.
• Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic. New York: Random House. 2003. ISBN 978-1-400-07897-4.
• Holland, Tom (7 February 2019). Æthelflæd: England's Forgotten Founder. illus. Colin Shearing. London: Ladybird Books. ISBN 978-0-7181-8826-9.

Translation

• Herodotus (2013). The Histories. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-143-10754-5.

External links

• Tom Holland's official website
• Tom Holland on X
• Holland's page, Conville and Walsh literary agents
• Interview at infinity plus by David Mathew
• Interview at SF Site by Georges T. Dodds
• Times Literary Supplement review of Herodotus
• New York Review of Books review of "Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar"