Bookwitch

“Mum, Mum, the Roman Mysteries…!” shrieked Daughter last night, so the dinner making was abandoned for a quick look. It was the first trailer for the new TV series we’d seen. Looks good.

Mysteriously, the one hour episodes of the Roman Mysteries have turned into half hour episodes, starting on Tuesday 8th May at 16.30 on BBC1. A quick look at Caroline Lawrence’s website suggests that the second half hour follows, but on a different channel. This is beyond me, but do watch on Tuesday. It’ll be good.

Caroline will be appearing on Blue Peter tomorrow 3rd May to talk about the series, and on Radio 4 on 13th May at 19.30 in Go4It. After all that exposure Caroline will be really famous, and we can only hope she won’t forget her oldest and worsest fans.

There will also be some sort of interactive games on the BBC website that Caroline has written, which apparently is a first. Being old I don’t understand games very well, but I’m sure they will be fun.

I’m fairly sure that I started to write my own Famous Five story, a very long time ago. Not being good at sticking to things, other than plastic seats in hot weather, I didn’t get far before giving up. Writing your own sequel was pretty much all you could do in those days when your favourite series of books came to an end.

Now, however, we have quiz books and things. Two have recently entered our house and started living on Daughter’s floor. They are Mates, Dates and You by Cathy Hopkins and The First Roman Mysteries Quiz Book by Caroline Lawrence. I suspect the fact that these books reside next to the bed means they are sort of useful and attractive.

What can I say? They are perfect for fans. This way the books come back to life again, and if you’re good you can answer the questions. If not, then you can re-read the books or search through them for the right answer. Have to admit that I can’t remember very many details at all, but that will be due to those failing grey cells that mysteriously have started to bother this young witch. (Heard a rumour that Caroline herself has failed to answer some questions. But not because of anything age related, I’m sure!)

Just take question 60 from the R M quiz: “According to Pliny’s Natural History, the fiercest watchdog is a hybrid from India. It has a dog for a mother. Which animal is its father?” Now that’s what I call knowledge.

And from Mates, Dates: “How long did TJ take to beat Lucy’s brother Steve at arm-wrestling?” There’s a good female role model for you. And it’s romantic. My favourite quote is from Lucy’s T-shirt slogans: “Your village phoned. They want their idiot back.”

I’m on my way.

Don’t play sad music to Caroline Lawrence. It apparently makes her want to kill people. Her thirteenth Roman Mystery, The Slave-girl from Jerusalem, out this week, has just given me a bit of a Sirius Black moment. Caroline has killed off one of her characters. Daughter14, who snatched the book from me when it arrived, was left crying on her own without the comfort of an understanding mother. Well, I didn’t know what to comfort her about, did I?

Daughter was given the first three Roman Mysteries for Christmas some years ago. I reasoned that she liked crime and she liked history, so these would be perfect. She didn’t read them. The Resident IT Consultant read and liked the books. So we forced her to read the first one. As you’ll find, there’s a fair amount of book forcing going on chez bookwitch.

Then I found Caroline was coming to Daughter’s school, and hurriedly bought the next five books. So now we had eight, seven of them untouched by Daughter’s hands. That summer holiday she dutifully started on number two. Then there was a frenzied movement as Daughter gobbled up all eight. I read them after her, reasoning I’d have plenty of time being second. No. Daughter started re-reading them, coming closer and closer to my book. Then we read in tandem, taking turns, before she overtook me the second time. There’s been no looking back.

Caroline has been here three times, so Daughter and the rest of us have lunched and brunched with her, and read plenty more books.

It’s not very proper to admit to a general lack of interest in the classics. I blame my school. But I find these books provide an excellent way to get a bit of a classical education. In fact, I’m amazed that Caroline can manage to fit in so many real dates and people into her plots. I’d never even considered the possibility of feeling close to Pliny the elder or any of those boring old Roman emperors, but I do. I couldn’t have cared less about Roman latrines, despite my enormous interest in toilets.

It’d be easy to dismiss the Roman Mysteries as light reading and just another series. Caroline herself admits to being inspired by the Famous Five and by Nancy Drew. But these books are great. They entertain. They educate. There’s another five to come. What shall we do after number eighteen..?

I’ll leave you with the opening sentence of The Slave-girl from Jerusalem. “Someone was going to die; of that he was perfectly sure.”

Hope you are halfway down the road to your nearest bookshop by now.

Don’t miss Open Book at 16.00 on Radio 4 Sunday 25th March. And you will if you’ve forgotten about summertime. So don’t forget that either.

Mariella Frostrup will be talking to two favourites of mine, Caroline Lawrence and Mary Hoffman, on the subject of history in children’s books. They both have new books out in early April.

Someone else with a book out that week is Derek Landy, but for him it will be for the first time. I have only started reading his Skulduggery Pleasant this afternoon, and it’s fun. Really fun. Will report back later when I’ve finished the book and met Derek. Glow-in-the-dark pages…

Open Book is repeated at 16.00 on Thursday 29th on Radio 4. That will be a busy day radiowise, as you really shouldn’t miss Philip Pullman and his teacher that morning, at 11.30 on Radio 4. I’ll have to tie knots in my hanky.

What is Caroline Lawrence doing to Anthony Horowitz? Judging by the photo on her website today, the Roman Mysteries author tried to hit Horowitz with a sponge-stick when they were both at the Globe for World book day last week.

The sponge-stick was what the ancient Romans used to wipe their bottoms with after they’d done a number two. As Caroline is a woman who knows what she’s doing, I can only assume that Anthony Horowitz deserved it.

Euge!