Cleopatra is a truly iconic figure: the last Egyptian Pharaoh and arguably the greatest. But she is also a mythical figure, mainly known through Shakespearean tragedy and Roman propaganda. There has been little attempt to tell her true story until now . . .

In this, the first biography for over thirty years, Joann Fletcher draws on a wealth of overlooked detail that reveals Cleopatra as she truly was: a brilliant politician, erudite scholar and mother of four children. Queen of Egypt at seventeen, she restored her country to its former glory and was the only Mediterranean ruler to manage to resist the Romans for over twenty years, before her final defeat and suicide.

The book brilliantly evokes Cleopatra's life from Alexandria to Rome, and is full of tantalising details about her famous banquets, her massive library, her goddess outfits, beauty regimes and hairstyles. Fletcher also explodes a series of long-standing myths and addresses her heritage, with some exciting results . . .