Celebrated children’s novelist Ben Kane gave an illuminating, at times fierce and definitely animated talk to the Form I and II boys in the library recently.

Ben specialises in historical fiction and is best known for The Forgotten Legion, Spartacus and the Hannibal book series and, as you can tell from Nico’s (Form II) report below he definitely enthused and engaged his young audience;

‘Ben Kane is a famous author who came to our school and told us a about himself and the books he wrote. Ben Kane writes Roman novels. He explained to us about Roman armour and Roman clothes. He also told us about the Roman beds which were really small and tight. He told us about the weapons like the spears, axes and cannons. The sword he brought in was called a gladius and it was very heavy. The armour he brought in was very heavy as well and he said that Romans would have to march about 24 roman miles a day with more than that on. The shield he brought in was a legionary sheild which was very big and only strong men were expected to hold it.’

Thank you to Nico for writing this piece and to Ben Kane for giving such an illuminating talk.