Hello everyone, and welcome to the history of Byzantium.

Episode 91 – An interview with author Vincent O'Reilly

I'm always keen to promote any kind of celebration of Byzantium in popular culture, so today

I talk to American author Vincent O'Reilly about his two Byzantine novels.

These are attempts to fill in the gaps in the historical record, rather than fantasies

with just a toehold in reality.

The first is called Count No Man Happy, and tells the story of Constantine VI, the man

who was sadly blinded by his mother Irene just before our narrative ended for this century.

As you may remember, Constantine was betrothed to rotrude the daughter of Charlemagne before

the plan fell through.

The Ophani's claims that Constantine was very sad when the engagement broke off, though

he'd never met the prince as he seems to have developed an affection for her.

Vince takes this idea and describes the frustrated world of young Constantine as he lives in

his mother's shadow struggling to be his own man.

As he mentions the interview, he was inspired by the 1940s movie Laura about a man falling

in love with a woman he's not met to shape the story.

And drawing on 1950s culture even further, the book uses a very interesting device to

explore Constantine's mind and to connect the obscure world of Byzantium with our own

modern times.

This is done through the character of Beth, a 1950s pin-up model with an interest in history.

As Vince explains in the interview, Beth is based on Betty Page.

Real life pin-up model and her story, as in Beth, runs in brief snippets alongside the

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