The history of Dublin is that of the whole island of Ireland. Best-selling author Edward Rutherfurd has lived in Dublin for the past decade; with the help of some of Ireland's leading historians, he has researched this epic and groundbreaking novel of the city. Rutherfurd managed to encapsulate the drama of Salisbury, Moscow, London and the New Forest in one volume in his previous best-sellers Sarum, Russka, London and The Forest. But such was the wealth of new material uncovered for this volume, Rutherfurd has taken the unprecedented step of splitting the hardback publication in two. The first of the two books, Dublin: Foundation, will take us from prehistory, the High Kings of Tara, the Viking invasion, the machinations of Henry II and the greed of Henry VIII to the burning of the saint's relics in front of Christchurch cathedral in 1538. At the end of this majestically sweeping narrative Rutherfurd effectively closes the story of the 'Irish' Irish: the descendants of Fingall and Cuchulainn, the princes and Kings of Tara of Brian Boru and the spiritual descendants of Patrick himself.The second novel, Dublin: Ascendancy taking the story of Dublin from the 16th Century will appear next year and in 2005 the two volumes will be combined in a single volume in Arrow paperback.