Falco

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...

ISBN 184605673X   Pages 320 ISBN13 9781846056734 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 609 Publisher Cornerstone   Published in London Imprint Century   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 03 Jun 2010   Spine width (mm) 31 DEWEY 823.914   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Key to Abbreviations
		Introduction
		Background, Writing and Research		1
		The author's Birth and Background		1
		Being a Writer		12
		The Writing Process		25
		Influences		30
		A Sharp Discourse on Errors		31
		Research		32
		The Novels		38
		The Characters		98
		Falco and Helena, with Their Household		98
		Falco's Relatives		110
		Helena's Relatives		131
		Historical Characters		142
		The Public Sector: Vigiles and Bureaucrats		156
		Other Regular Characters		170
		Place		183
		Map of the Roman Empire		184
		Gazetteer, with Modern English Place Names		186
		Map of Rome, City and Vigiles Jurisdictions		193
		Street Plan of Rome		194
		The Forum		196
		Falco's Rome		197
		Lindsey's Favourite Roman Places		223
		Romans and the Country		225
		Travel and Transport		227
		Time		229
		A First Century Roman Timeline		229
		Significant Events		231
		The Daily Routine and the Hours of the Day		235
		More...