Arena: The Story of the Colosseum

by John George Pearson

In the Year Ad 80 the Colosseum opened with quite the longest and most nauseating organized mass orgy in history. It was a mammoth celebration on the grandest scale, a fitting inauguration for an arena built to epitomize all the majesty and power of the Roman Empire, a building which also held the seeds of that Empire's decay and destruction.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

John Pearson was a writer best associated with James Bond creator Ian Fleming. He was Fleming's assistant at the London Sunday Times and would go on to write the first biography of Ian Fleming, 1966's The Life of Ian Fleming. Pearson also wrote "true-crime" biographies, such as The Profession of Violence: an East End gang story about the rise and fall of the Kray twins.

Pearson would also become the third official James Bond author of the adult-Bond series, writing in 1973 James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, a first-person biography of the fictional agent James Bond. Although the canonical nature of this book has been debated by Bond fans since it was published, it was officially authorized by Glidrose Publications, the official publisher of the James Bond chronicles. Glidrose reportedly considered commissioning Pearson to write a new series of Bond novels in the 1970s, but nothing came of this.

Pearson was commissioned by Donald Campbell to chronicle his successful attempt on the Land Speed Record in 1964 in Bluebird CN7, resulting in the book Bluebird and the Dead Lake.

Pearson wrote the non-fiction book, The Gamblers, an account about the group of gamblers who made up, what was known as the Clermont Set, which included John Aspinall, James Goldsmith and Lord Lucan. The film rights to the book were purchased by Warner Bros. in 2006. He also wrote Façades, the first full-scale biography of the literary Sitwell siblings, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell, published in 1978.

Pearson also wrote five novels:

Gone To Timbuctoo (1962) - winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973)

The Bellamy Saga (1976)

Biggles: The Authorized Biography (1978)

The Kindness of Dr. Avicenna (1982).

Pearson passed away on November 13, 2021. He was ninety one at the time of his death.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a couple of books about the games previously. This one was distinctive in that the author, while describing their development within the context of Roman history, maintains a socio-political thesis as to their place in the Roman polity, an argument with considerable relevance to the place of commercial competitive sports and similar entertainments in contemporary Western societies.

[David Hollywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really enjoyable and informative history, supported by lots of great illustrations.

[Ambyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for the required history class I'm in for my scholarship to go to Italy in the summer. It dragged, but I guess stories about an ancient location tend to. The Colosseum is mesmerizing, to say the least, but the author sucked it up big time.