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Caroline Lawrence was our Guest Editor in September 2102 - Click here to see her selections.
Caroline Lawrence was born in London. Her American parents returned to the United States shortly afterwards and she grew up in Bakersfield, California with her younger brother and sister. Her father taught English and drama in a local high school and her mother was an artist.
When she was twelve, Caroline's family moved to Stanford University in northern California so that her father could study Linguistics. Caroline inherited her father's love of words and her mother's love of art. She subsequently studied Classics at Berkeley, where she won a Marshall Scholarship to Cambridge. There, at Newnham College, she studied Classical Art and Archaeology.
The books in the series are:
The Thieves of Ostia
The Secrets of Vesuvius
The Pirates of Pompeii
The Assassins of Rome
The Dolphins of Laurentum
The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina
The Enemies of Jupiter
The Gladiators from Capua
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Fugitive from Corinth
The Sirens of Surrentum
The Charioteer of Delphi
The Slave Girl from Jerusalem
The Beggar of Volubilis
The Scribes from Alexandria
The Prophet from Ephesus
And finally…
The Man from Pomegranate Street
THE ROMAN MYSTERIES have sold over 1.1 million copies since its introduction in 2001 and in 2009 won the Classical Association Prize for 'a significant contribution to the public understanding of Classics' THE ROMAN MYSTERIES has been recognised as having an exemplary combination of entertainment and education.
June 2020 Book of the Month | Caroline Lawrence, author of the bestselling Roman Mysteries series, combines her second-to-none knowledge of the classical world with her ability to tell a great story to create terrific new historical adventures. Alex and Dinu have already experienced time travel – they explored Roman Britain in the first in this new series – now they are being whisked back into Ancient Greece, and this time Dinu’s clever little sister Crina is coming with them. Minutes after the three have arrived in the Temple of Athena in Athens, Alex and Dinu are captured by Scythian archers – the ancient Athenian equivalent of the police. The action keeps up at the same pace, short chapters and pacey dialogue keeping the pages turning! Ancient Greece has never seemed so appealing, and it’s great that Lawrence makes learning about it such thrilling entertainment. One to recommend to fans of Rick Riordan, while readers longing for more classical adventure should check out Philip Womack’s new story The Arrow of Apollo too.
From the author of The Roman Mysteries comes a nail-biting time-travel adventure, set in Roman London - where past meets present. 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 London schoolboy Alex Papas on a mission. Time travel is easier for kids, and Alex knows Greek and a little Latin. The portable portal is placed in London's Mithraeum, recently relocated back to its original 3rd century AD site. Now all Alex has to do is go through and find the blue-eyed girl. There are just three rules: 1. Naked you go and naked you must return. 2. Drink, don't eat. 3. As little interaction as possible. But Time Travel is fun fair, and there are more ways to die in Roman London than Alex could have guessed. Books in The Time Travel Diaries Series: 1. The Time Travel Diaries 2. The Time Travel Diaries: Adventure in Athens
Escape from Rome Book 1 | The first in a brand new historical adventure series from million-copy-selling Caroline Lawrence, set in Roman Britain during the reign of the evil Emperor Domitian.
Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8 | Caroline Lawrence found inspiration for Queen of the Silver Arrow in Virgil’s Aeneid, and her story of warrior princess Camilla is as exciting as any fantasy adventure. Acca lives in Laurentum, a small town on the Tiber, in the days before the founding of Rome. She’s grown up hearing stories of the fierce young woman living wild in the hills, linked from birth to weapons. The arrival of migrants from Troy and the threat of war brings the two girls together. When war starts, Camilla fights like an Amazon – thrilling scenes put us at the heart of the battle and it’s impossible not to be awed and intimidated by her, as her friend Acca is. Tinged with myth as well as a real sense of the classical past this is truly gripping stuff, Katniss Everdeen look to your laurels! Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+
One of our Dyslexia Friendly Books of the Year 2014 - Interest Age Teen Reading Age 8+ | Best-selling Caroline Lawrence doesn’t skimp on violence in this action-packed story which captures the bravery of two young boys, survivors of the carnage of the destruction of the city of Troy. Rye and Nisus are only six and thirteen when the great city falls. Both have suffered terrible tragedy and witnessed appalling violence. Following a leader who is determined to found a new Troy, the boys spend seven years voyaging towards their destination during which they train in all aspects of warfare in order to avenge the death of their respective relatives. When the chance to be heroes comes, Rye and Nisus seize it. But will they survive? And where are the gods when they most need them? Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 14+
In the second in this adventure series, Virginia City's newest detective, P.K. Pinkerton, takes on his first case - finding the killer of a murdered girl before he strikes again! Nominated for a 2014 EDGAR award, P.K. Pinkerton is back in the second book of this whip-crackingly brilliant series, set in America's Wild West. The death of sadistic desperado Whittlin Walt has created an opening for 'Chief of the Comstock Desperados'. Several young gunfighters are battling it out in the saloons and streets of Virginia City, and against this backdrop of gunmen, gamblers and cowboys, P.K. Pinkerton, Private Eye, is having trouble drumming up business. Nobody seems to take a 12-year-old detective seriously! Then a servant girl named Martha begs P.K. for help. She witnessed the murder of her mistress - a hurdy girl - and the killer knows it. Now he is after her. Martha gives P.K. a description of the killer and a cryptic clue, but then she disappears. Can P.K. solve the case and find Martha before the killer does?
July 2012 Book of the Month. Fast, furious and funny, meet 12 year old P K Pinkerton who believes he can be a Wild West Private Eye and a good one too. With the help of his newly found friends in Virginia City he takes on the gunmen of the city to prove that he can become a detective. Caroline Lawrence, author of the hugely successful Roman Mysteries series knows exactly how to create an utterly entertaining mystery adventure in order to grip and thrill her readers.
P. K. Pinkerton, Private Eye is back in the second book of this whip-crackingly brilliant series set in America's Wild West in which this unique hero interacts with real historical characters and events. Pinkerton may only be 12 but success at foiling plots and imprisoning the guilty has made PK Pinkerton indispensible to the people of Virginia City. Click here for the first one, The Case of the Deadly Desparados. If you're interested in finding out even more about P K Pinkerton then check out the Private Eye's very own website.
Flavia and her friends are hotly pursued by the emperor's soldiers as they investigate a kidnapping in the sixteenth Roman Mysteries adventure. The penultimate title in the bestselling Roman Mysteries series is re-issued with a brand new cover look.
The emperor is dead! But did he die of natural causes, or was it murder? The young detectives are determined to find out in the seventeenth and last of The Roman Mysteries.
Caroline Lawrence has a real gift for bringing history to life through the four main characters in her impressive ‘Roman Mysteries’ series. This is the 15th in and the four heroes have plenty of puzzles to solve in a thrilling quest but danger lies around every corner.
Caroline Lawrence has a real gift for bringing history to life through the four main characters in her impressive ‘Roman Mysteries’ series. This is the 15th in and the four heroes have plenty of puzzles to solve in a thrilling quest but danger lies around every corner.
A wondrous behind-the-scenes tour of the exotic locations which have inspired the phenomenally successful Roman Mysteries by the same author. Fans of the series will relish this ‘alternative’ travel guide and armchair read. Parents and children will find it enormously useful when looking to explore the locations in which the Roman mysteries are set – from Morocco to Libya and from Ostia to Surrentum. Also available by the same author is The Scribes from Alexandria.
On a mission for the Emperor Titus, Flavia and friends head to Morocco to find a lost emerald mentioned in a prophecy, in the fourteenth of The Roman Mysteries.
A tragic end awaits an important character in this the latest in the bestselling series from Caroline Lawrence. Yet again the four young detectives have to crack a case that’s trickier and has even more surprises than usual. It’s action and adventure coupled with history and page-turning drama at its very best.
500 questions on which to test your knowledge of six of Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries series. A great way to remember back to familiar stories while also checking that you know the facts!
A tragic end awaits an important character in this the latest in the bestselling series from Caroline Lawrence. Yet again the 4 young detectives have to crack a case that’s trickier and has even more surprises than usual. It’s action and adventure coupled with history and page-turning drama at its very best.
Excitement, drama and danger fills each and every one of these Roman mysteries. Certainly not essential to start at the beginning of the series – this is the 12th one as my view is they get better and better. The historically accurate elements are interwoven cleverly into the storyline, so much so that you’ll feel transported into the world of the Romans completely.
Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries series has been a major hit within the 9-12 market as the titles are full of humour and make history through fiction much more interesting. Now, the author has come up with a quiz book for all her fans and they can see just how much they know. If you’re new to the series then why not get this one alongside some or all of books 1-6 as the quiz is based on those titles.
Great characters, masterful suspense are the hallmarks of Caroline Lawrence’s Roman mysteries. She has that rare gift of genuine writing talent – to draw you into an historical setting long gone, as if you are really there watching over all the characters and the action. Any child who finds history boring (sadly, that’s most of today’s kids) will take a different view once they’ve been introduced to Lawrence’s masterful storytelling. Lovers of history meanwhile will devour it.
The four friends investigate a possible poisoning in the eleventh Roman Mysteries adventure.
The latest in the excellent Roman Mysteries series, this time Flavia’s tutor Aristo is arrested in Corinth. When he escapes, Flavia and her friends Nubia, Jonathan and Lupus set off in hot pursuit while also trying to work out why he did it. From the oracle at Delphi to the Acropolis in Athens, the friends follow the clues which will help them to solve the mystery.
The friends fight to thwart the plans of an evil slave-trader who deals in children in the ninth Roman Mysteries adventure.
March AD 80. In Rome, the Emperor Titus has announced that there will be a hundred days of games to open his new amphitheatre (now known as the Colosseum). Flavia, Nubia and Lupus take this opportunity to go to Rome and search for their missing friend, Jonathan. Their search leads the young detectives straight to the games, where they must face wild beasts and gladiators to accomplish their mission.
February, AD 80. An imperial messenger summons Jonathan's father to Rome, where the fever which started in Ostia is now threatening to become a plague. Jonathan and his three friends go, too, and need to use all their skills to solve a dangerous mystery for the Emperor Titus.
Flavia is suspicious of her father's new love and starts to investigate. Meanwhile, mysteries abound amid the chaotic festival of Saturnalia in the sixth Roman Mysteries adventure.
Someone is killing Ostia's dogs and Flavia is determined to find out who and why in the first of The Roman Mysteries.
Aesop's Fables belong to every one of us. They were once simply the words of a slave; a man who lived 600 years before Christ. They were written down by a Greek, and then a Roman, and they spread, like the armies of Rome, across the known world. They were told around heathen campfires, and noble hearths; whispered in sacred monasteries and churches; lectured in Victorian school rooms and acted out by children at play. Each little fable is bound up with 2000 years of wisdom and truth. From these we know that a mouse is too weak to withstand the strength of a lion, yet too mighty to be bound by ropes. We learn that the violence of the North Wind is no match for the gentle beaming of the unrelenting Sun. We know in our hearts that the sheep must push through life, and try to overcome its many dangers, that the wolf will trick and deceive to survive, and that we cannot pretend to understand the logic of the gods if we do not hold ourselves to the same standard. Therefore, Aesop's Fables belong to all of us, as Stone Age cave paintings belong, not to the artist, but to human civilisation. It is a book about what it is to be human, cherished by each generation and passed on to the next.
On a mission for the Emperor Titus, Flavia and friends head to Morocco to find a lost emerald mentioned in a prophecy, in the fourteenth of The Roman Mysteries.
June 2020 Book of the Month | Caroline Lawrence, author of the bestselling Roman Mysteries series, combines her second-to-none knowledge of the classical world with her ability to tell a great story to create terrific new historical adventures. Alex and Dinu have already experienced time travel – they explored Roman Britain in the first in this new series – now they are being whisked back into Ancient Greece, and this time Dinu’s clever little sister Crina is coming with them. Minutes after the three have arrived in the Temple of Athena in Athens, Alex and Dinu are captured by Scythian archers – the ancient Athenian equivalent of the police. The action keeps up at the same pace, short chapters and pacey dialogue keeping the pages turning! Ancient Greece has never seemed so appealing, and it’s great that Lawrence makes learning about it such thrilling entertainment. One to recommend to fans of Rick Riordan, while readers longing for more classical adventure should check out Philip Womack’s new story The Arrow of Apollo too.
Stories are incredibly powerful so if you become a writer, be careful. Your book could change the world. Caroline Lawrence shares her best tips in this illustrated guide to creative writing and storytelling for readers and writers aged 9+. . . Featuring examples from all kinds of stories, including Black Panther, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, The Incredibles and Star Wars, Caroline explores every aspect of writing - from brainstorming a setting, to creating an opponent and choosing your hero's greatest weakness. Inspired by Caroline's school events and workshops, and illustrated with Linzie Hunter's lively black and white artwork on every page, this is the perfect addition to the bookshelves of young writers everywhere.
From the author of The Roman Mysteries comes a nail-biting time-travel adventure, set in Roman London - where past meets present. 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 London schoolboy Alex Papas on a mission. Time travel is easier for kids, and Alex knows Greek and a little Latin. The portable portal is placed in London's Mithraeum, recently relocated back to its original 3rd century AD site. Now all Alex has to do is go through and find the blue-eyed girl. There are just three rules: 1. Naked you go and naked you must return. 2. Drink, don't eat. 3. As little interaction as possible. But Time Travel is fun fair, and there are more ways to die in Roman London than Alex could have guessed. Books in The Time Travel Diaries Series: 1. The Time Travel Diaries 2. The Time Travel Diaries: Adventure in Athens
The fourth and final book in the new historical adventure series from million copy selling Caroline Lawrence, set in Roman Britain during the reign of the evil Emperor Domitian. AD 96. Bouda, an orphaned British girl with a troubled past, has been helping Juba and his siblings since they first arrived in Britannia. For almost two years they have been in hiding from the Emperor Domitian's agents. But now information has come to light that could bring down the tyrant. When Juba and his sister decide to return to Rome with the man who has this evidence, Bouda goes with them. But is it ever right to kill a tyrant? From the bestselling author of THE ROMAN MYSTERIES, perfect for children studying at Key Stage 2.
Third in a new historical adventure series from million copy selling Caroline Lawrence, set in Roman Britain during the reign of the evil Emperor Domitian. Eleven-year-old Ursula is happily learning to be a Druid in the woods of Britannia. But then she is asked to go on a quest to find a boy who was abducted as a baby. Will her mystical training equip her for life on the road - with a troupe of Roman pantomime dancers and beast hunters? Her task: to adapt to life in the arena Her quest: to find the boy everyone is seeking Her destiny: to protect children and animals From the bestselling author of THE ROMAN MYSTERIES, perfect for children studying at Key Stage 2.
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