The Event

How can we use the ancient world to inspire us to create new worlds in fiction? And what can we learn from ancient Greek and Roman writers about forging our own characters, structure, and setting? In this online event, writer, comedian, podcaster and presenter Iszi Lawrence will be asking children’s author Caroline Lawrence all her burning questions about how Caroline uses Classics to help her write.

Our Guest Speakers

Caroline Lawrence is a children’s author best known for her 17-book series, The Roman Mysteries. Caroline has written a spinoff series called The Roman Mysteries Scrolls for younger children, two retellings of stories from Virgil’s Aeneid for teen readers: The Night Raid and Queen of the Silver Arrow, and The Roman Quests (2015-2018) set mainly in Roman Britain. In addition to her books set in ancient Rome, Caroline has written a series set in the Wild West called The P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries. Her most recent books are The Time Travel Diaries (2019) in which a London schoolboy goes back to Roman London, and How to Write a Great Story (2019) where she shares all her best writing tips.

Iszi Lawrence is a writer, comedian, podcaster and History presenter. Her credits include Netflix’s The Lost Pirate Kingdom, co-host of BBC Radio 4’s flag ship show, Making History (with Tom Holland), The British Museum Membercast, and The Z List Dead List podcasts. During the 2020 lockdown she started a new podcast about Dinosaurs called Terrible Lizards with Dr Dave Hone. She has written for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Xtra, BBC Radio 1 and Resonance FM. She has also written for the Guardian Online and her first novel, The Unstoppable Letty Pegg (historic children's fiction 8+ Bloomsbury) was published in 2020 and her next novel, Billie Swift Takes Flight is out September 2021.

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