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Rome in Flames

Kathy Lee

9780281076352
160 pages
SPCK Group
Overview
At the start of book 2 in the Tales of Rome series, we find 13-year-old Bryn working a baker's shop in Rome but still dreaming of returning to his British homeland. Nero has been emperor for ten years and many fear him. Nero particularly dislikes Christians, who worship their own God instead of the emperor, and has had some arrested and killed. A great fire breaks out in the city, and Bryn and his friends escape to the outskirts, to the home of a rich slave-trader, Septimus. Bryn returns to the city to see the damage and finds a city in ruins. However, he also sees members of Nero's own Praetorian Guard setting fire to houses. Rumours fly that the Emperor has had the fire started deliberately in order to clear ground to build a grand new palace, but others blame the Christians. Bryn is amongst those arrested. Nero wants to round up a hundred Christians and have them set alight as a mighty spectacle. Will Bryn and his friends survive?
Author Bio
Kathy Lee has sold over 60,000 books for younger readers. She is the author of The Lost Book Trilogy, The Fabulous Phoebe series, The Mallenford Mysteries, Deadly Emily and No Angel, among other titles. Kathy was born in Montrose, Scotland. She studied zoology and then worked with computers, but always knew that she wanted to write. While her three sons were still young she wrote her first children's book - sitting on the stairs trying to get them to sleep at night!