Needless to say, I am a big Robert Harris fan.  His novels are consistently timely and always thrilling.  His latest novel is set in the Vatican during a 72 hour period where the Cardinals have gathered in a Conclave to choose a new Pope.  The microcosm he creates here shines a light on faith, power and the burden that comes with them.  Given our increasingly polarised political world, Harris has caught the moment again with Conclave.  On Monday past, Robert Harris and Paul Greengrass (of the Bourne movies fame, among other better works) met at the Henley Literary Festival to discus the book and try (and fail) to not bring up the man who has stolen their party.  Needless to say, it was a fascinating conversation.  I tried recording the conversation on my phone, but the audio in Christ Church wasn’t great, so it came out a tad quiet.  Still, it is embedded below if you fancy a listen, just crank up the volume, it is a very interesting chat and Q&A.

The idea for Conclave came to Harris as he watched the first appearance of the latest Pope and saw, at the windows of the Vatican, the Cardinals leaning to see and hear the new Pope they had just chosen.  “In those faces”, Harris said “Young, old, innocent, worldly, cunning; I saw how the Senators of Rome must have looked.”  Given that he had spent three fabulous books in that senate already, it is surprising he would want to return to a similar subject, but he has.  Even more surprising was the access he got to the Vatican to conduct his research.  Basically, Harris got the tour money cannot buy.  His guides were very open in their descriptions of the process and the locations that generally live only as names and images in the minds of the faithful.  He said the power of the place was palatable.  Given that the book is about the manoeuvrings of the election, governed by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, who is suffering a crisis of faith, you would think he final product wouldn’t be met with much welcome.  But Harris sent the final book to an unnamed Cardinal, who responded favourably and said that they could all aspire to the central character, the suffering Cardinal Lomelli.  As Harris put it, and to a degree I agree with him, that “doubt is required for faith.”

Needless to say, the reviews of Conclave have been stellar.  I’ve not read it yet, but having thought I would not get to the Henley Literary Festival this year, I pre-ordered a copy and now have two.  As I’m a fan and eager to share my enjoyment of Harris’ work, the un-signed copy is now up for grabs.  So, as its rather straight forward for me, I’ll be doing one of those Twitter Retweet prize draws for a copy of Conclave.  Head over to my Twitter feed and do the necessary.  Winner will be announced on Monday 3rd October 2016, T&C’s at the bottom of this post.   Needless to say, my review will be up soon here at BoneyAbroad.com.

All the best and here’s hoping for you.

Robert Harris’s Conclave Twitter Prize Draw T&C’s:

1. The Prize is ONE hardback copy of Robert Harris’s Conclave RRP £20.
2. Open to UK residents aged 18 and over – excluding relatives of Matthew Bone.
3. The Closing date is Monday 3rd October 2016 at 0759 GMT.
4. Only one entry per person.
5. Entrants must follow @BoneyAbroad, retweet the competition tweet and reply using the #WinConclave hashtag
6. The winner will be chosen at RANDOM using Tweetdraw.
7. The winner will be informed by Tweet and Twitter DM within 7 days of the competition closing on Monday 3rd October 2016 and will need to reply within 28 days or a new winner shall be chosen.
8. The promoter is Matthew Bone.
9. By participating in this prize draw, entrants confirm they have read, understood and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.