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Caroline Corby |
Cleopatra for children by author mummy Caroline Corby
Caroline Corby is aiming to spark young people’s interest in history by creating adventure stories about great figures of the past, writes Peter Gruner click here to buy
THIS is a book aimed at inspiring children aged nine or older to read history but, here I am, a so-called adult, finding Cleopatra: Escape down the Nile, a real page turner.
Hampstead writer – and former Camden Labour councillor – Caroline Corby has researched what little is known about Cleopatra’s early life in Egypt and turned it into an adventure story full of excitement.
Cleopatra was, of course, one of the world’s most flamboyant and ambitious women, who became Queen of Egypt at the tender age of 17. Her story inspired Shakespeare and her beauty was said to be legendary.
Middle-aged men like me remember drooling over her in the cinema when she was famously portrayed as a dark-haired temptress by actress Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 Hollywood film epic.
Her childhood story begins as the young Cleopatra awakes to find she is sharing her bed with a cobra snake as thick as her arm. She is saved thanks to the quick actions of her servant, Appollodurus, who quickly draws his sword and decapitates the creature.
These are bad times for her family. Her father, King Ptolemy, a widower, is a heavy drinker of wine and highly unpopular with the poor people he rules. Cleopatra also has a ruthless older sister, Berenike, who desperately wants to be queen and is suspected of planting the snake.
Berenike is even considering marrying her father to obtain power. Incest, we learn, was not uncommon in those days. Cleopatra’s ancestors had adopted the Pharaohs’ practice of marrying within the family: Kings married mothers, siblings or daughters. Cleopatra’s own mother and father had been brother and sister.
There are riots; King Ptolemy eventually flees to Rome and Berenika seizes power. Cleopatra must escape her cruel sister who has sent a search party of soldiers to arrest her.
With few belongings and in disguise, she escapes from the palace with her trusty servant and they board a boat that will take them down the Nile, hopefully to freedom and safety.
But it is not just soldiers she must look out for. Later, as the boat is moored in reeds, Cleopatra spots the two unblinking yellow eyes of a crocodile.
A young boy splashes an oar to frighten the beast who merely grabs the paddle with his jaws to begin a life or death tug of war.
With the help of people from the shore the animal is thankfully driven back into the deep.
Caroline, a mother of three children, aged 10, 12 and 14, began writing stories about famous characters from the past to encourage her own children to take an interest in history.
“I always enjoyed history and wanted to find a historical novel aimed at the young that would capture my children’s imagination,” she says.
“After searching without success I decided to write one myself. I knew Cleopatra led an extraordinary life, but the more I researched her, the more intrigued I became by this brave and clever young queen.”
Caroline’s family share a long tradition with the local Labour party. She was born in Camden Town and her father, John Mills, was a leading Labour councillor on and off for over 30 years before standing down at the last election. Caroline herself represented a Kentish Town ward between 1990 and 1994.
A former pupil at Haverstock School, she went to university to study maths and statistics before becoming a banker and ending up as a high-flying director in a venture capital company for 13 years.
“But I found the job was progressively becoming incompatible with being a mum,” she says. “The hours were too long. I started writing, although I’d never written anything before.”
At the same time as the Cleopatra book, Caroline is also publishing Boudica: The Secrets of the Druids.
Further work will include the childhoods of William the Conqueror, Julius Caesar and Lady Jane Grey.
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