Over the last year or so Jane has republished (both as paperbacks and as Kindle e-books) her previously published books for children: “Below the Green Pond”, “The Sludgegulpers” (now “Under Buckingham Palace”), and “Saving the Dinosaurs”. (Click  on the titles, as well as here for more details).

The last of these introduced 11-year-old Peter Phillips, who travels back in time as far as the Cretaceous Age, where he befriends a mother dinosaur, Jahunda, and her son Segue. (I’ll always remember coming back from work one evening and reading the scene she had written that day in which they are introduced. “I like the names you’ve given the dinosaurs”, I said. “What do you mean?”, she retorted. “Those are their names!”)

When “Saving the Dinosaurs” first appeared, one reviewer wrote that

            Descriptions throughout vividly recreate a prehistoric world, and

            the empathy achieved through Peter’s friendship with the dinosaurs

            engenders a real appreciation of life 65 million years ago. This is a

            remarkable book, ambitious but totally accessible, educational but

            enthralling.

And another reviewer agreed, writing that

            this highly imaginative fantasy is coupled with much factual

            evidence about life in the late Cretaceous Age and provides an

            exciting read.

Jane was particularly pleased that one of her favourite children’s authors, Jill Murphy, wrote to the original publisher, Pan Macmillan, to say that, in her view,

            this book has the best device a children’s book could have, which is

            a perfect blend of reality and fantasy ... All the characters are real

            and interesting, especially the two boys, and I could not put it down

            until the very last page.

The same approach to research and writing characterises her second novel featuring Peter Phillips (now 13).  This time Peter finds himself

sent back 5,000 years to Ancient Egypt at the time of the 4th Dynasty. There he finds a world where the wheel has not yet been invented, where the prayers of the Pharaoh alone guarantee that the Nile will provide sufficient water for the crops, and where Ra-Atum, the Sun God, has to travel by boat through the underworld each night in order to rise in the morning.

Shortly after his arrival, Peter is befriended by the Pharaoh’s daughter, Princess Mer-tio-tess, who believes he is a Spirit sent to help her. While increasingly attracted towards her he finds himself drawn into a web of power struggles and rivalry.

And things get worse when Peter, by accident, brings her back to present day London, a cold place filled with sad-looking people and which, she believes, must be the Underworld.

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(Here is a an extract from the start of the novel)

It was the time of Ak-Het in the month of Thoth, and in the capital of Maidum, the people waited, filled with excitement. For the first of Thoth was New Year’s Day, and if they looked up into the heavens, they would see, rising just before dawn, Sothis ... or Sirius ... the dog star. The coming of this star heralded the beginning of The Great Nile Flood. The people of Ancient Egypt watched as great pillars of sand came racing over burnt-up fields, whirling them to dust, withering vegetation into crackling stems, making their animals grow listless from lack of water. Fierce sunlight cast deep shadows everywhere. The land was ruled and loved only by creatures of heat: the acid scorpion, the rustling snake, the scraping cricket, the scaly lizard. While overhead, hanging high on a blast of hot air, the quiet firm eye of the Horus Falcon scoured the scorched earth for creeping, scurrying things.

In the Palace, raised above and away from the houses, King Snoferu rolled about on his bed, sick and feverish. He was Pharaoh, and on his shoulders was the burden of the Flood. If the Gods allowed him too little water, he would be blamed; if they allowed him the right amount, he would be adored.

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If you want to read more and would like the 206 page paperback , contact Jane on janewaller@metronet.co.uk. Or you may prefer to download the e-book version to your Kindle or other device.

Help!   I was going to give a link to the book on Amazon Kindle and have just found out that it is NOT under the name Jane Waller, but under that of Mike Spark, the illustrator.  Will have to get on to Amazon and sort this out asap.

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