The Fatal Fire

Terry Deary's Roman Tales

by Terry Deary, Helen Flook (Illustrator)

AD 64. Rome is a frightening place. But little does Christian slave girl Mary realise the dangers that await her when she accompanies her master to the city. It is the day of the chariot races and Mary finds herself the only witness to a terrible crime.

Genres: Childrens, History

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is one of the authors of the Horrible Histories series of books popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history. Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages and imitated.

A cartoon series has been made of the series of books and was shown on CiTV for a period in 2002.

The first series of a live-action comedy sketch show of the same name was shown on CBBC in 2009 and a second series is due.

Terry is also known widely throughout children and adult reading groups alike for his True Stories series (see below for series list).

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Sunderland in 2000. His numerous accolades also include the Blue Peter "Best Nonfiction Author of the Century" Award in the U.K.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Ciaran Mcnamee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fatal Fire is a fictionalised account of the burning of Rome. It is told from the perspective of Mary, a Christian Roman slave girl. I read this book with my year 3 class. It helped the children appreciate the different roles within Roman society and helped them to expand their vocabulary by prompting them to use "Roman" words. The high-points of the story are the section prior to the fire and its immediate aftermath. Both my class and i felt that the conclusion to the story was a bit of a let-down. I would cautiously recommend this book but only because it seems that third-person narrative stories set in Ancient Rome for year 3 children are a bit thin on the ground.

[Donna Maguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was a really good book to read! The story was well written and it was easy to read and understand and I loved the way that the story was told. This is the story about a slave called Mary who witnesses the start of a disastrous fire in Rome. I am a huge fan of history myself and my daughter is following in my footsteps with her interests and this year in School they have been learning about the Romans with her going in dressed up as a Roman earlier in the school year. It is 4 stars from me for this one - highly recommended and I am loving working my way through the books in the Terrible True Tales series - they have all been fantastic so far!! (I read this book as part of the Terrible True Tales compilation on the Romans)

[Rachel Barrett]

Read this to my Year 3 class as part of their topic on Romans. They really enjoyed it.

[Xanthi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief fictional account for older children, on the burning of Rome and Nero. I do like the inclusion of historical fact summary at the end of these tales. It includes the controversy as to whether Nero was to blame or not, for the fire, and is so, why.
I listened to this on audiobook.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best in the Romans series.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

787 - 2016