The Last of the Wine » (2ND)

Mary Renault was born in London and educated at Oxford. She then trained for three years as a nurse, and wrote her first published novel, Promise of Love. Her next three novels were written while serving in WWII. After the war, she settled in South Africa and traveled considerably in Africa and Greece. It was at this time that she began writing her brilliant historical reconstructions of ancient Greece, including The King Must Die, The Last of the Wine, and The Persian Boy. She died in Cape Town in 1983.

The story of Alexias, a young Athenian from a good family who gets drawn in to the controversial teachings of Socrates and a participates in the Olympic Games — all set against the background of famine, siege and civil conflict.