Book description
As the girl came running up the steps, I decided she was wearing far
too many clothes...So, in 1989, readers were introduced to Marcus
Didius Falco, the Roman informer, as he stood on the steps of the
Temple of Saturn, looking out across the Forum: the heart of his
world. Twenty years and twenty books later, Falco fans want a
companion volume.
Only here will you learn the author's private background, including
her descent from a failed assassin and how atheism improved her
knitting. Here too are the real glories and heartache involved in
research and creation: why the baby had to be born in Barcelona, which
plots evolved from intense loathing of management trainees, what part
a thermal vest played in the iconic Falco's conception. It can't be a
complete handbook to ancient Rome, but it covers perennial issues.
There are a hundred illustrations, some specially commissioned, others
from family archives. Enlightening quotations come from the Falco
books and from eminent sources: Juvenal, through Chandler, to 1066
and All That.
Readers have asked for this book. Their paranoid, secretive
author agrees it is now or never. Time to spill beans on the travertine...
Lindsey Davis has written over twenty historical novels, beginning
with The Course of Honour. Her bestselling mystery series
features laid-back First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his
partner Helena Justina, plus friends, relations, pets and bitter enemy
the Chief Spy.
After an English degree at Oxford University, Lindsey joined the
Civil Service but became a professional author in 1989. Her books are
translated into many languages and have been dramatized on BBC Radio
4. Her many prizes include the Premio Colosseo, awarded by the mayor
of Rome 'for enhancing the image of Rome', the Sherlock award for
Falco as Best Comic Detective and the Crimewriters' Association
Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. She was born in
Birmingham but now lives in Greenwich, London.
Her most recent books are Master and God followed by The
Ides of April.
