A Message Through Time Interview

1. Can you tell us a bit about A Message Through Time?

Felix is a cheeky 11-year-old who likes to rile up his bossy older stepsister Zoe. She is not impressed when he finds a way to whisk them into ancient Roman Gaul – especially when he then brings a high-class Roman girl into their own time – by mistake! They get up to all sorts of dangerous adventures trying to return her, and there is a big risk none of them will get home at all…

2. Where did the inspiration for this story come from? Was it similar to its predecessor, or were there some differences?

The inspiration for the main character in my previous book, The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, was my nephew. Funnily enough, his older sister inspired Zoe in A Message Through Time. When she read The Boy Who Stepped Through Time she was horrified by details like the communal toilets and dormice for dinner. She made the comment, ‘I’m glad you didn’t send me back in time!’ Instantly, I knew my next book would have to feature a reluctant teenage girl going back in time!

3. Did this story come to you fifty years ago, like The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, or was it an easier process when it came to writing this one?

The research I had done helped a bit, but for this book I needed to know about different aspects of Roman life, like riverboat travel and sacred springs, and lots more about the lives of girls and women. All things I hadn’t researched before.

4. You used research from the previous book in this one – how many more books do you think you have enough research for?

I do have lots of interesting historical details I haven’t used yet – but at the moment I don’t actually plan to write another Roman themed book. I’m ready to move on! I always love new challenges, and there are so many different historical periods waiting to be brought back to life!

5. Similarly, to the first one, how did you pull the complex research and the fictional elements together in this book?

Before I write a scene, I have to picture it clearly in my head. This means knowing how people dressed, what their homes looked like, and especially how they behaved. Then, once I have the scene clear in my head, I concentrate on telling the story and only use the research elements that flow naturally as I describe the scene. However, I then have to check back to make sure I haven’t made a mistake. For instance, to show her status, an upper-class Roman girl was only allowed to move in a slow way, not rush around like a slave, and I often had to rewrite scenes when I accidentally made Petronia rush around at an exciting moment in the story! Interestingly, whenever I made these corrections it always improved the story instead of spoiling it. It became an integral part of the interaction and friction between the characters that Petronia refuses to behave like a modern child.

6. What made you decide to bring an Ancient Roman girl into our time for this one, before setting off on the bulk of the journey?

I’ve always loved the idea of plonking someone from the past into our time and seeing what they make of it. It started off just as something fun, but then became integral to the plot because things go wrong when she tries to go back to her own time. 

7. Was there a particular artefact or fact that triggered this novel, like the villa for the first book?

The important artefact in this novel is a stylus – an ancient Roman writing tool. In the first book I had imagined this would have the power to carry someone through time, which set me on the path of writing time travel. In this book I used the stylus as an even more important plot device, because the main character, Felix, loses it.

8. What impact if any, did this have on this story in particular, or will you save it for a future story?

This gave me the wonderful opportunity to create the tension of Felix trying to find the stylus and get it back, but, just as importantly, it also gave me the chance to build on the emotional interplay between the stepsiblings. Felix is afraid to tell his stepsister he has lost the stylus for fear of destroying the fragile bond they are developing in the face of adversity. How will he resolve this?

9. Ancient Rome was quite a vast empire – but most books focus on Ancient Rome in terms of what is now Italy. What made you choose Roman France (which I think was Gaul back then) for this story in particular?

My sister helped with the research and when we began the first book we decided to pick a time and place in the Roman empire that were unusual, and that we liked. We had both visited and loved the south of France so we chose there for a location. My sister is an archaeologist, so we decided to focus on a time that she had already studied – the late Roman era. However, as it turned out, the questions I asked her led her into a whole new area of study!     

10. Would you like to live in these times, and if so, what do you think you would be doing?

I would hate to live in these times, but I would love to be able to visit briefly and really experience the world. Research and imagination can never replace actual experience!

11. Finally, what is your favourite thing about writing historical fiction?

I have been obsessed by the past since as far back as I can remember – trying to imagine all the tiny details of daily life. One of my favourite parts of writing historical fiction is having the luxury to indulge that passion, immerse myself in research and bring the past to life as well as I can.