Another rollicking short story from the Chronicles of St Mary's author Jodi Taylor.

Question: What sort of idiot installs his mistress in his wife's house? Especially when that mistress is Cleopatra VI Thea Philopator, queen of Egypt and the most notorious woman of her time? Answer: Julius Caesar - poised to become king of Rome. Or as good as.

Question: At this potentially sensitive point in your political manoeuvrings, who are the last people you'd want crashing through the door, observing, recording, documenting.? I think we all know the answer to that one.

Roman Holiday - an epic, standalone tale set in Ancient Rome, 44 BC, featuring, in no particular order: an attempted murder; stampeding bullocks; Cleopatra, queen of the Nile; a bowl of poisonous snakes; a smallish riot; Julius Caesar; and Mr Markham's wayward bosoms.

Jodi Taylor is and always has been a history nut. Her disinclination to get out of bed for anything after 1485 can only be overcome by massive amounts of chocolate and sometimes, if it's raining, not even then. She wanted to write a book about time travel that was a little different and, not having a clue how difficult this would make her book to classify, went ahead and slung in elements of history, adventure, comedy, romance, tragedy, and anything else she could think of. Her advice to booksellers is to buy huge numbers of her books and just put one on every shelf.