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Natasha Solomons | Cleopatra’s life and loves in her own words

October 24, 2025

What is the title of your latest release?
I AM CLEOPATRA

What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Cleopatra’s life and loves in her own words.

How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I wanted to recreate ancient Alexandria and meet young Cleopatra, the vulnerable, scheming Queen.

Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
She’d be totally charming, but she’s also utterly ruthless. So, I’d be a little scared.

What are three words that describe your hero?
Bad Ass Queen.

What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That Cleopatra was in Rome in the months leading up to Ceasar’s murder on the Ides of March, staying in one of Caesar’s villas.

Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
During. After. Endlessly. In my dreams.

What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Olives. Olives. Olives.

Describe your writing space/office!
A glass studio in the garden with a view through the willows of the hill beyond. A golden retriever on my feet.

Who is an author you admire?
Jane Austen. Cesca Major.

Is there a book that changed your life?
Moontiger by Penelope Lively

Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was lucky. My first book sold at auction. And I’ll never forget the call when my agent told me that all the offers were in.

What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read everything. I actually read a lot of non-fiction for pleasure. The more random the topic, the better.

What’s your favorite movie?
A Room with a View

What is your favorite season?
summer and autumn.

How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Friends, family and a martini, with an olive of course

What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I love the BBC You’re Dead to Me history podcast. Irreverent yet fascinating historical research.

What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese

What do you do when you have free time?
I love to travel. So, adventures with my partner and my kids.

What can readers expect from you next?
I’m plotting a return to the Italian Renaissance

I AM CLEOPATRA by Natasha Solomons

A Novel

From the internationally bestselling author of Fair Rosaline comes a captivating historical novel—a powerful retelling of the life of one of the most beguiling and misrepresented female figures in history, Cleopatra.

The favored daughter of the Pharaoh, Egyptian Princess Cleopatra spent her childhood hiding amid the scrolls in the great library of Alexandria, dreaming of one day writing her own story.

When her father dies, naming both Cleopatra and her selfish brother Ptolemy as his successors to the throne, danger arises. While the young Queen sails the Nile to greet her people, her brother plots to eliminate her and rule the empire alone.

But while Ptolemy has the power of the kingdom behind him, Cleopatra has her cunning wits. When the great Caesar arrives from Rome, she realizes he could be the key to her salvation—though courting this powerful man could cost her everything.

Can Cleopatra save her life, her throne, and her beloved Egypt and finally write her own history?

Told from the dueling perspectives of Cleopatra and Caesar’s mistress Servilia, I Am Cleopatra is a powerful, addictively readable reimagining of the alluring queen’s life. A modern retelling that goes beyond previous caricatures, I Am Cleopatra is a fascinating portrait of the flesh-and blood-woman behind the great legend. Natasha Solomons’ spellbinding story of female power and fragility, love and loss, fierce friendship and terrible betrayal introduces at last the real Cleopatra in all her glory and vulnerability.

Women’s Fiction [Harper Perennial, On Sale: October 21, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063449756 / eISBN: 9780063449763]

Buy I AM CLEOPATRAAmazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR

About Natasha Solomons

Natasha Solomons

NATASHA SOLOMONS is the author of five internationally bestselling novels, including Mr Rosenblum’s List, The Novel in the ViolaThe Gallery of Vanished Husbands, and The House at Tyneford which was a New York Times bestseller. Natasha lives in Dorset with her son, daughter and her husband, the children’s author, David Solomons with whom she also writes screenplays. Her novels have been translated into 17 languages. When not writing in the studio, Natasha can usually be found in her garden.

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