This 17-book series about a Roman girl who solves mysteries started when I had a lightbulb moment: Nancy Drew in Ancient Rome! But if 18-year-old Nancy (a fictional girl detective) had lived in Roman times she would be married with about three kids. So Flavia Gemina is only ten when she solves her first mystery and meets a diverse trio of friends: her Jewish next-door-neighbour Jonathan, shy slave girl Nubia and a feral beggar boy named Lupus who cannot speak but only growls. Over the next few years Flavia, Jonathan, Nubia and Lupus grow up as they solve many mysteries and have adventures all over the empire. With compelling characters, thrilling plots and conscious accuracy about historical detail, The Roman Mysteries are beloved of teachers, parents and most of all, kids. Ten of the 17 episodes were televised by the BBC in 2007 and 2008. That seems like a long time ago, but ancient Rome is timeless. And so are The Roman Mysteries. Ages 7+
Threptus is beggar-boy with a heart of gold who lives in Rome’s seaport, Ostia. He idolises Lupus, a former beggar boy who solved many mysteries, had exciting adventures and now owns a ship. When Lupus and his friends are exiled at the end of the Roman Mysteries, Threptus organises a makeshift triumphal parade to bid them farewell. Before he boards his ship, Lupus bequeaths Threptus his wax-tablet with the written challenge: Carry on my good work. But it’s hard when you’re a penniless beggar. Together with Floridius the soothsayer and Aphrodite the sacred chicken, Threptus learns to read and write and solve mysteries like his idol. Ages 6+
Virginia City was a mining camp in America’s Wild West. During the American Civil War, it was a dangerous place, full of gamblers, desperados, pistol-packing widows and – worst of all – newspaper reporters. When twelve year-old P.K. Pinkerton arrives there homeless, penniless and hunted in 1862, things don’t look good. But P.K. soon finds allies in a young reporter named Mark Twain, a gambler called Poker Face Jace and Ping the photographer’s apprentice. With an inscrutable face, an inquiring mind and a penchant for disguises, P.K. sets up shop a detective. Full of real historical characters and events, the four P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries are unlike anything you’ve read before. Yee-haw! Ages 9+
Virgil’s great masterpiece The Aeneid was written during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus. It tells how the Trojan hero Aeneas fled his burning city on the night of its destruction, gathered refugees and sailed to find a new homeland… which would one day be Rome. Virgil’s writing is beautiful but some of the stories are tragic and even brutal. Originally published only in book form, these Tales from Virgil’s Aeneid have been refreshed and are now also available as ebooks and audiobooks. Short, brutal and tragic, they are perfect mythological retellings for reluctant or busy teen readers, and YA fans of the Roman Mysteries. (Read in any order)
The year is AD 94 and the place is Rome. When the corrupt Emperor Domitian sends soldiers to confiscate a rich property in the middle of the night, twelve-year-old Juba must escape with his brother and sisters, and journey to distant Britannia on the edge of the known world. There the siblings meet Bouda, a beautiful young cutpurse who attaches herself to them in a bid to escape her life of crime. As they try to elude the emperor’s hitmen, they visit Roman sites which can still be seen today in London, Fishbourne Roman Villa, Butser Iron Age Farm, Bath Spa, Caerleon Fort, Chester and York before a dramatic Return to Rome in the final book. The four-book series features appearances by grown up characters from The Roman Mysteries, so that we discover the eventual fates of Flavia, Jonathan, Nubia and Lupus. Ages 9+
Billionaire Solomon Daisy is obsessed with the skeleton of a blue eyed African girl from Roman London. When his tech guys accidentally invent a time machine he decides to send schoolboy Alex Papas on a mission to find her. Time travel is easier for kids, and Alex knows Greek and a little Latin. The portable portal is placed in London’s Mithraeum, recently restored to its original 3rd century AD location. So it should be simple for Alex to go through and find the blue-eyed girl.
But Time Travel is full of surprises, especially when one of the rules is Naked you go and naked you must return. Ages 8+
For nearly twenty years I’ve been going into schools and sharing my best writing tips for plot, characters and unputdownability. I learned most of them from movies and Hollywood script gurus like John Truby and Blake Snyder. Because I reference films and TV as well as books, my approach appeals to children who are not necessarily good readers. After all, your story doesn’t have to be a book or short story. It could be a movie, a platform game, a music video, a play, a graphic novel, a ballet or even a tale told out loud to your friends or family. As well as sections such as Sample Writing Workshops and A Day in My Life as a Writer, I share over a hundred fun bite-sized tricks and tropes. I am thrilled that artist Linzie Hunter agreed to illustrate the book as my approach involves using the imaginative right hemisphere of the brain, the part in charge of humour and images!
Sometimes books are printed in small numbers for special occasions and then go out of print. If you are a top fan of the Roman Mysteries you might like to add these ‘collectibles’ to your shelf. My favourite is the Travel Guide, From Ostia to Alexandria with Flavia Gemina. Some editions have colour plates of me and my husband-illustrator Richard on some of our research trips!
Amarantus and his Neighbourhood is the story of a soft-hearted slave in Pompeii and how he finds love, freedom and happiness, partly thanks to his big nose and partly thanks to the devastating earthquake that occurred about sixteen years before the eruption of Vesuvius.
Although the story is fictional, it is heavily based on the archaeology of Pompeii and the literary sources of the time. This book is the novelisation of a Latin History Course produced by the prestigious Cambridge Schools Latin Project.
To produce this book I worked with experts such as Dr Sophie Hay, Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Dr Olivia Elder. The book is brilliantly illustrated by Greek Myth Comix creator Laura Jenkinson-Brown and it is supplemented with lots of online material.
But it’s a great read on its own! So why not follow the story of Amarantus and his neighbourhood as they experience a year of puppies, friendships, weddings, funerals, bar fights, elections and earthquakes! You will discover:
• why honey is a ‘hot food’
• why the best seat in the house was on the ‘lowest’ couch
• where naked sailors kept loose change
• and why the late drinkers supported Vatia in the local elections.
Everyone has heard of Aesop who told about ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ as well as ‘The Fox and the Sour Grapes’, but did you know that he lived in the world of Ancient Greece? He grew up in the 7th century BC in what is now Turkey. That means he was almost as old as Homer. But whereas Homer wrote epic poems about heroes, Aesop wrote prose fables about talking animals and ordinary people. An ancient biography of him tells us that he was an ugly hunchback who was also enslaved. In this new retelling, I have scattered a few incidents from his astonishing life among the fables in order to make the book read more like a story. There are also some new fables you won’t have heard before such as ‘Why Dogs Sniff Bottoms’ and ’The Camel and his Dung’. And your favourite Greek gods appear in some of these fables too. So read, enjoy… and be amazed!
