Anton Gill / Oliver Bowden Books In Order

Publication Order of Huy the Scribe Egyptian Mystery Books

Publication Order of Assassin's Creed Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Anton Gill is a British author, who has become a full time professional writer since 1984, with 35 published books. The author was born in 1948, in Ilford, Essex. He was the only child of a German father and an English mother and he lost both his parents in the year1995. His father was an engineer, while his mother taught Drama, English, and Russian. His early years of childhood were spent in Bamberg, Germany. Anton speaks good German and French, and sketchy Spanish and Italian. He got his education between 1960 and 1966 at Chigwell School, in Essex. During his school years Anton was involved in a lot of acting and this is the reason that made him decide to go into the theatre. His higher education was pursued between 1967 and 1970 at Clare College, Cambridge. There he did more acting and directing, running the Fine Art Society and becoming the president of the Amateur Dramatic Club of the college. He graduated in English Literature. While at Cambridge, become friend with Salman Rushdie, who thought him playing drama. Anton Gill also worked in theatre with David Hare.

Between the years 1970 and 1976 Anton Gill worked in the theatre, as an Assistant Director at the Royal Court Theatre, London. There he had the occasion to work with Ronald Eyre, Billie Whitelaw, Lindsay Anderson, Albert Finney, Samuel Beckett, John Osborne, Athol Fugard, and Anthony Page. During this time Anton Gill also wrote plays, one of them being performed in the year 1973, at the Theatre Upstairs. In 1973 he also ran for a season an Experimental Theatre in Geneva. There he worked on a ‘collective creation’ play about François Villon. Later he re-wrote it as a formal play, which was directed in 1975 by Hansgünther Heyme, at the Cologne City Theatre. Anton Gill also had the occasion to work with John Osborne Greenwich, for a season, in 1974-1975. He also participate on the premiere of Samuel Beckett’s play NOT I, in 1973, at the Royal Court. In 1976, Anton Gill’s one-woman play called “Waiting” was playing in New York .

From 1976-1978 Anton Gill worked as a Drama Officer at the Arts Council of Great Britain. In this period he contributed a number of arts plays and features, and started to write for radio. Among the plays he wrote in this period are “The Berlin Resurrection”, a black comedy set in the last years of the Second World War at the Berlin Natural History Museum, the play “Dandolo”, starring Carleton Hobbs in his last role, and “The Man Who Wrote Shakespeare”, a comedy starring Peter Woodthorpe and Roy Kinnear. Among his Radio features are included “For the Whales”, a documentary about whales and whaling, and a biography of Alexander Pope, “The Spider’s Touch”.

In 1976 Gill was a script editor for BBC Radio Drama, and between the years 1978 and 1980 he was a Senior Drama Producer with the BBC. During the year 1981 Anton Gill ran “The Archers” in Birmingham. He resigned from the BBC in 1982 and since 1984 Gill is working as a full time professional writer. He is specialized in historical books, most of them treating contemporary European history topics.

Among the books published by Anton Gill is Gateway of the Gods: The Rise and Fall of Babylon, a historical account of the life in ancient Mesopotamia. This has been known for long as the cradle of human civilization, the place where came into being the first city states, and with them many of the legal, social, and economic structures that we still use today. The book is starting with a survey of the early Mesopotamian dynasties, and continue with a chronicle of the city’s rise under the famous figure of the Amorite king Hammurabi who was the one to unify Mesopotamia under the hegemonic rule of Babylon. The book continue to follow the troubled fortunes of the region in the centuries that followed, including its new acquired golden age under a dynasty of Chaldean kings, and the life of its last great king of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar II. Anton Gill not only reviews the military and political triumphs of the king Nebuchadrezzar, but he also explores its outstanding achievements in the cultural sphere from economics and mathematics, to legal matters and astronomy, from arts to writing. The author also describes the features of everyday life, from shopping to sex, from culinary habits to drink customs.

Another interesting creation of the author Anton Gill is Art Lover, a detailed biography of Peggy Guggenheim, who is the founder of a modern art gallery in Venice, Italy. The life of Peggy is exhilarating presented in the book, from her notorious sexual habits to her groundbreaking artistic tastes.

Peggy Guggenheim was born in the year 1898 and she was the daughter of wealthy industrialist who died aboard the Titanic. Her childhood marked by isolation and tragedy is presented by Gill in a well-crafted manner. The book continues with the adult life of Peggy in Paris, a life that defied the social conventions of her time in a bohemian style. She was living in the artistic circles in Paris alongside famous personages of the time such as Djuna Barnes and Marcel Duchamp.

The book also presents her short and violent marriage to novelist Laurence Vail. Peggy had two children with Vail, Sindbad and Pegeen, but she run off after seven years of marriage with writer John Holms. He was only the first in a long series of short-term romance stories. Peggy always chose men with superior intellect, as she felt she could learn from them. Among her affairs are included a brief marriage to painter Max Ernst and an affair with playwright Samuel Beckett.

The biographic book reveals the single minded devotion of Peggy Guggenheim to her art collection. Artists ranging from Pollock to Brancusi have made a name through her patronage. At a time when just a few collectors were interested in avant-garde art, Peggy amassed one of the finest collections of modern art in the world. Many literary and artistic enterprises were funded by Peggy Guggenheim in the last half of the 20th century, works that would have otherwise failed without her encouragement and support.

The last pages of the book details the sadness and misery of the last chapter in the extraordinary life of Peggy Guggenheim. Overall, the book skillfully paints the portrait of this fascinating “poor little rich girl” who was lonely during her last years.

Oliver Bowden Biography:

Oliver Bowden is the pen-name of Anton Gill, a full time and professional writer since 1984. Gill has published 35 books in the course of the last 27 years. Born in 1948 in Ilford, he is the son of an English mother and a German father, he grew up in London. He is a Renaissance historian and novelist.

Education

His infancy was spent in Bamberg, Germany. He can speak good German and French with sketchy Spanish and Italian. Anton Gill was educated at the Chigwell School in Essex, this was between the year 1960 and 1966. He then joined the Clare College in Cambridge. He did a lot of acting here and chose to go into theatre.

How he began writing

Initially, he wanted to join Theatre, at the age of 14. After short periods of freelancing through writing and directing various radio plays, TV Scripts and adaptations, he joined the TV-am breakfast radio company in 1982. He worked there for 18 months as a features producer. He was first an actor then a director. Among many other activities he was able to set up and produce soap opera.

However in 1984 he got his break with commissions from 2 different books, this provided him enough money to freelance; this is when he recognized his writing niche. Gill then resigned in 1984 to become a full time writer. His decision was by chance and fate.

When Gill is not writing, his main occupation is traveling, traveling as much as he can. Gill has traveled widely to India. He has also gone to Israel, Morocco and Tunisia. In 1993 he visited Australia, where he toured the Mustang, an ethnic kingdom in Northern Nepal. With this he wrote an adventure for the travel magazine on the title “Outdoors Illustrated”. He has travelled all over Europe; he has gone to the USA when researching for his books “Peggy Guggenheim – Art Lover and The Journey Back from Hell. Most recently he has returned from Costa Rica and Namibia.

Gill’s writing

Gill writes on different ancient and contemporary historical subjects, he has also written three biographies. His work includes both non-fiction and fiction; however his special field lies in the European history. Books on contemporary European History include the journey Back from Hell, Berlin to Bucharest and An Honorable Defeat. The journey Back from Hell gained much popularity.

In fiction he has written a series of an Egyptian Mystery that features the scribe, the world’s first private eye; this has been published all over the world. Quite recently Gill published The sacred Scroll, this is a history-mystery with penguin. His most recent novels include The accursed and The city of Gold.

Gill publishes his work under three different pennames; he uses Antony Cutler, Ray Evans and Oliver Bowden. He has written six novels under the penname Oliver Bowden, this is the famous Assassin’s Creed Series. They include: Renaissance, Brotherhood, The secret crusade, Revelations, Creed III and Black Flag. These books are about different assassins that get involved in a war between the Knights Templar and Assassins.

The Assassin’s Creed series opened a world to video game series that have historical fiction mixed with action and adventure. These games have appeared in various gaming platforms worldwide.

Assassin’s Creed Renaissance

This is the first novel of Oliver Bowden’s series, it was published in 2009. It features Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a man who seeks revenge for the cold-blooded murder of his family. This is to restore his family honor and eradicate corruption, to do this he learns the art of the Assassins. Along the way, Ezio calls on the wisdom of great minds like Leonardo da Vinci, knowing that survival is only by the skills he learnt.

To his friends Ezio becomes a tool for change; he fights for justice and freedom. However, to his enemies he is a threat that is dedicated to the destruction of tyrants who abuse people in Italy. Soon the epic story of revenge, power and conspiracy begins.

Assassin’s Creed :The Secret Crusade

Published in June 2011, the Novel follows a story told by Niccolo Polo. This talk of the life of an Assassin known as Altair, the novel begins with the death of his father. He watches his father being executed for an unintended death of a noble. Sometimes later he watches his father’s fellow assassins die out of guilt of the death of Altair’s father. With this pain and frustration Altair begins to train under Al Mualim, a leader of the Assassin Order. He instructs him not to tell of his father’s suicide. Despite many warnings Altair tells Abbas, his close friend. The news that his father killed himself causes problems between him and Altair.

The novel progresses to later years when an older Altair, with his wife Maria and son Darim return home after successfully assassinating Genghis Khan. With their absence Abbas proclaims himself as Master of the Assassins takes over Masyaf, he rules the people with violence and fear. This meets Altair with a cold indifference since his wife and son is murdered. Devastated by their death Altair seeks revenge at all costs.

His inspiration

As a great writer Gill draws his inspiration from different people. He states that his he draws his main writing from Solzhenitsyn, Victor Hugo and Cervantes. In the early days he drew his inspiration from Shakespeare and Tolstoy. He draws from these writers, their ability to use thriller to get real truths about human nature and character. As for teachers, he got his writing skill from his English teacher at his English Master School, David Ballance and his director of studies at the Cambridge.

Gill’s present day

Outside traveling and travel, Anton Gill enjoys cooking, looking at paintings and playing the clarinet. According to an interview, he is a passionate gamer, he gains his inspiration through writing and from playing the Game from the Assassin’s Series. Gill currently lives in Paris and London. From 2003 till recently, he has spent his time within the French Capital. His now lives with his wife Marji Campi, married since January 2005. Marji Campi is an actress. His sons of their first marriage live in Barcelona, he and Marji frequently visit them.

One Response to “Anton Gill / Oliver Bowden”

1. Paul Brown: 1 year ago

   Hi Anton

   I believe I am your second cousin, Paul Brown. Son of Stan and Ethel and brother of Ian

   I am wondering if you would like to get in touch.
   I live in Manchester (again) but spent a number of years in Wales, London and the South East of England.

   Reply