The Vengeance of Rome (100 page)

The woman was muttering in Yiddish. Still sobbing she rose and came towards me, trembling arms outstretched. I could stand no more. Apologising to Esmé, I fled that nightmare. Something in the woman's eyes reminded me of Hitler.

I walked most of the way home. I believe Esmé took the woman back to Jaffa the next day. She wrote me a note. It had a baffled, accusatory tone. I hardly read it. I had disappointed her. Esmé's taste for sensational self-deception probably came from reading too many Victorian novels. I blamed her experiences in the Civil War. What decent girl could emerge from that ordeal with her mind intact? I would have been so happy in my old age to enjoy friends and relatives from those days, but surely it is better to be alone and sane than complete one's final years in the comfort of lies?

Sadly, I made a choice many of us are forced to make when age threatens memory, when death is no longer our enemy but our only friend.

I said as much last night in the pub to Mrs Cornelius.

She shook her head and winked.

‘I've got ter ‘and it to yer, Ivan.' She smiled admiringly into her port and lemon. ‘Yo're one in a million, an' no mistake. Bloody amazin'! I sometimes wonder if yo're real!'

Only she truly understands me.

She is my muse. My inspiration.

Mein Engel.

Voted by the London
Times
one of the best fifty writers since 1945, Michael Moorco6ck was shortlisted with Salman Rushdie and Bruce Chatwin for the Whitbread Prize (
Mother London
) and won the
Guardian
Fiction Prize for
The Condition of Muzak
. He has won almost all major SF and Fantasy awards and several lifetime achievement awards including the ‘Howie', the Prix Utopiales and the Stoker.

He received the BSFA award for his editorship of
New Worlds
magazine which blended genre and literary fiction, science and the arts. Best known in the USA for his rule-breaking SF and fantasy, including the classic Elric and Hawkmoon series,
Behold the Man
,
The Warlord of the Air
,
Gloriana
and
The Dancers at the End of Time
, he is also the author of several graphic novels including
Michael Moorcock's Multiverse
and
Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer
. His political essay ‘The Retreat from Liberty' predicted the manner of Margaret Thatcher's downfall.

He has written movies including the cult classic
The Final Programme
and received a gold disc while with the British prog-rock band Hawkwind. Records with his own band The Deep Fix include
The New Worlds Fair
and
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
(also a novel). He played on a variety of records including the Eno-produced Robert Calvert masterpiece
Lucky Leif and the Longships
. He wrote the novel accompanying the Sex Pistols movie
The Great Rock ‘n' Roll Swindle
.

Moorcock's ‘Colonel Pyat' quartet has been described as an authentic masterpiece of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is currently working on a new album
Live from the Terminal Café
for the Spirits Burning label and a novel
The Whispering Swarm
, combining autobiography and fantasy.

His journalism appears in the
Spectator
, the
Guardian
, the
Financial Times
and the
L.A. Times
. His latest novel is an SF comedy featuring Dr Who,
The Coming of the Terraphiles
.

Born in London, Moorcock now divides his time between Paris, France, and Austin, Texas. He is married to Linda Steele and has three children by a previous marriage.

The Hungry Dreamers
; lost manuscript—never published

Stormbringer
(1965); restored and revised (1977)

The Sundered Worlds
(1965) aka
The Blood Red Game
(1970); revised 1992

Warriors of Mars
(1965) aka
City of the Beast
(1970); as Edward P. Bradbury

Blades of Mars
(1965) aka
Lord of the Spiders
(1971); as Edward P. Bradbury

The Fireclown
(1965) aka
The Winds of Limbo
(1969)

Barbarians of Mars
(1965) aka
Masters of the Pit
(1971); as Edward P. Bradbury

The LSD Dossier
(1966); as Roger Harris

Somewhere in the Night
(1966); as Bill Barclay, revised as
The Chinese Agent
(1970)

The Twilight Man
(1966) aka
The Shores of Death
(1970)

Printer's Devil
(1966); as Bill Barclay, revised as
The Russian Intelligence
(1980)

The Jewel in the Skull
(1967); revised (1977)

The Wrecks of Time
(1967) (US), censored; aka
The Rituals of Infinity
(1971) (UK), uncensored

The Final Programme
(1968); censored in US; revised (1979)

The Mad God's Amulet
(1969) aka
Sorcerer's Amulet
(1968) (US title); revised (1977)

The Ice Schooner
(1969); revised (1977), (1985)

The Sword of the Dawn
(1969) aka
Sword of the Dawn
(1968) (US title); revised (1977)

Behold the Man
(1969)

The Runestaff
(1969) aka
The Secret of the Runestaff
(1969) (US title); revised (1977)

The Black Corridor
(1969); with Hilary Bailey (uncredited)

The Eternal Champion
(1970); revised (1978)

Phoenix in Obsidian
(1970) aka
The Silver Warriors
(1973) (US title)

A Cure for Cancer
(1971); revised (1979)

The Knight of the Swords
(1971)

The Queen of the Swords
(1971)

The Warlord of the Air
(1971); censored in UK, restored in
A Nomad of the Time Streams
(1993)

The King of the Swords
(1971)

The Sleeping Sorceress
(1971) aka
The Vanishing Tower
(1977)

Breakfast in the Ruins
(1972)

Elric of Melniboné
(1972) aka
The Dreaming City
(1972) (US title); with unauthorised edits

The English Assassin
(1972); revised (1979)

An Alien Heat
(1972)

Count Brass
(1973)

The Bull and the Spear
(1973)

The Champion of Garathorm
(1973)

The Oak and the Ram
(1973)

The Sword and the Stallion
(1974)

The Land Leviathan
(1974)

The Hollow Lands
(1974)

The Quest for Tanelorn
(1975)

The Distant Suns
(1975); with James Cawthorn (Cawthorn as Philip James)

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
(1976)

The End of All Songs
(1976)

The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century
(1976)

The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming
(1977) aka
A Messiah at the End of Time
(1978) (US title); revised as
Constant Fire
(1993)

The Condition of Muzak
(1977); revised (unacknowledged) (1978)

Gloriana; or, The Unfulfill'd Queen
(1978); revised (1993)

The Golden Barge
(1979); written 1958

The Great Rock ‘n' Roll Swindle
(1980)

Byzantium Endures
(1981); censored in US

The Entropy Tango
(1981)

The War Hound and the World's Pain
(1981)

The Steel Tsar
(1981); substantially revised in
A Nomad of the Time Streams
(1993)

The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
(1982)

The Laughter of Carthage
(1984)

The City in the Autumn Stars
(1986)

The Dragon in the Sword
(1986)

Mother London
(1988)

The Fortress of the Pearl
(1989)

The Revenge of the Rose
(1991)

Jerusalem Commands
(1992)

Blood
(1995)

The War Amongst the Angels
(1996)

King of the City
(2000)

Silverheart
(2000); with Storm Constantine

The Dreamthief's Daughter
(2001) aka
Daughter of Dreams
(2013) (UK title)

The Skrayling Tree
(2003) aka
Destiny's Brother
(2013) (UK title)

The White Wolf's Son
(2005) aka
Son of the Wolf
(2013) (UK title)

The Vengeance of Rome
(2006)

Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles
(2010)

Elric: Les Buveurs d'Âmes
(published in French, 2011); with Fabrice Colin

The Whispering Swarm
(forthcoming)

The Stealer of Souls
(1963)

The Deep Fix
(1966); as James Colvin

The Time Dweller
(1969)

The Singing Citadel
(1970)

The Nature of the Catastrophe
(1971); anthology, stories by Moorcock & others

Legends from the End of Time
(1976)

The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius
(1976); revised (1987), (2003)

Moorcock's Book of Martyrs
(1976) aka
Dying for Tomorrow
(1978) (US title)

The Weird of the White Wolf
(1977); formerly
The Singing Citadel
/
The Stealer of Souls

The Bane of the Black Sword
(1977); formerly
The Stealer of Souls
/
The Singing Citadel

Sojan
(1977); revised as
Sojan the Swordsman
(2010)

My Experiences in the Third World War
(1980)

Elric at the End of Time
(1984)

The Opium General and Other Stories
(1984)

Casablanca
(1989)

The New Nature of the Catastrophe
(1993); anthology, stories by Moorcock & others (revised from 1971)

Earl Aubec and Other Stories
(1993)

Lunching with the Antichrist
(1995)

Fabulous Harbours
(1995) aka
Fabulous Harbors
(1997) (US title)

Tales from the Texas Woods
(1997)

London Bone
(2001)

The Metatemporal Detective
(2007)

Elric: The Stealer of Souls
(2008)

Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn
(2008)

Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress
(2008)

Elric: Duke Elric
(2009)

The Best of Michael Moorcock
(2009)

Elric: In the Dream Realms
(2009)

Elric: Swords and Roses
(2010)

Modem Times 2.0
(2011)

Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories
(2013)

Elric: The Fortress of the Pearl
(2013)

Caribbean Crisis
(1962); digest, as Desmond Reid with James Cawthorn (text re-written by publisher)

The Jade Man's Eyes
(1973); novella, revised in
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
(1976)

Epic Pooh
(1978); pamphlet, nonfiction, reprinted in
Wizardry and Wild Romance
(1987)

The Real Life Mr Newman
(1979); pamphlet, originally published in
The Deep Fix
(1966)

The Retreat from Liberty
(1983); pamphlet, nonfiction

Elric at the End of Time
(1987); illustrated novella, with Rodney Matthews

The Birds of the Moon
(1995); pamphlet, reprinted in
Fabulous Harbours
(1995)

Behold the Man: The Thirtieth Anniversary Edition
(1996); novella, originally published in
New Worlds
#166 (1966)

Firing the Cathedral
(2002); novella, reprinted in
The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius
(2003)

The Mystery of the Texas Twister
(2003); novella, published with
Argosy
#1, reprinted in
The Metatemporal Detective
(2007)

Letters from Hollywood
(1986)

Wizardry and Wild Romance
(1987); revised (2004)

Fantasy: The 100 Best Books
(1988); with James Cawthorn

Death Is No Obstacle
(1992); with Colin Greenland

Into the Media Web: Selected Short Non-fiction, 1956–2006
(2010)

London Peculiar and Other Nonfiction
(2012)

The Adventures of Jerry Cornelius: The English Assassin
(1969–70); with M John Harrison, Mal Dean and Richard Glyn Jones, in
International Times
#57–71

‘A Sword Called Stormbringer' (1972); with James Cawthorn, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, in
Conan the Barbarian
#14

‘The Green Empress of Melniboné'(1972); with James Cawthorn, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, in
Conan the Barbarian
#15

Elric: The Return to Melniboné
(1973); with Philippe Druillet

The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell
(1979); with Howard Chaykin

Michael Moorcock's Multiverse
(1999); with Walter Simonson, Mark Reeve and John Ridgway

‘Blitz Kid' (2002); with Walter Simonson, in 9–11:
The World's Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories To Remember
, Volume 2