Boudicat !

Robin Price

Description

Boudicat is the fourth title in the Spartapuss series. It’s a ‘must read’ for kids aged 7+ and cat lovers of all ages. Rome AD 36. The mighty Feline Empire rules the world. Queen Boudicat has declared war on Rome and wants Spartapuss to join her rebel army. Our ginger hero can’t see how a tiny tribe of Kitons can take on the mighty Feline Empire. But warrior queens don’t take ‘No’ for an answer. Boudicat is not for turning, she’s for burning!

Informations

• Publié par: Mogzilla
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781906132736
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

For those about to read, we salute you!

About the Spartapuss series…

‘Cattastic’– London Even Standard

‘Nonstop adventure… Spartapuss serves notice that cattitude rules!’ – I Love Cats (USA)

‘It’s Rome AD36 and the mighty Feline Empire rules the world. This is the diary of slave cat Spartapuss, who finds himself imprisoned and sent off to gladiator school to learn how to fight, for fight he must if he wants to win his free dom. Packed with more catty puns than you ever thought pawsible, this witty Roman romp is history with cattitude.’ – Scholastic Junior Magazine

‘Spartapuss makes history fun instead of dull…For people who don’t like history (like me), this book might change their minds.’ – Shruti Patel, aged 10

‘I really enjoyed this book and I liked the fact that it was written as if it was Spartapuss’s diary. My favourite character was Russell (a crow!!!) Spartapuss’s friend. I would recom mend this book for ages 10+ especially if you enjoy books with a twist and a sense of humour.’ – Sam (11yearold Young Archaeologist member from York)

‘A truly hilarious story… One of the UK’s brightest new authors.’ … ‘A must read for children and cat lovers’. – Teaching and Learning Magazine 2

‘…a unique couple of books that have really caught the imagination of the public here… clearly something special.’ – Andrew Fairmaner (buyer, The British Museum)

‘This is too good to be left just as a children’s book! Extremely funny and brilliantly written. Robin Price has taken the events of Roman history focusing around the time of Emperors Tiberious, Caligula and Claudius and turned it into something fascinating.’ – Monsters and Critics.com

‘Two paws up! A stylish, witty and thoroughly engaging tale that will captivate young and old readers alike.’ – Tanuja Desai Hidier, author of ‘Born Confused’ (Winner of the London Writer’s Award for Fiction 2001)

‘I would recommend them… Thrillers that you can't put down 'til you've read the whole thing.’ – Fiona Murray (reader reviewer) The Journal of Classics Teaching

Boudicat

ROBIN PRICE

boudicat

First published by Mogzilla in 2008 Second printing: Oct 2009 This edition: Jan 2014

Ebook edition: 9781906132736

Paperback edition: ISBN: 9781906132019

Copyright © 2008 Robin Price Cover illustration by Phil Hall Cover copyright © Mogzilla 2008 Cover layout and typesetting: Surface Impression Copy editor: Mogzilla Spartapuss and Catligula are registered trade marks.

The right of Robin Price to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1998. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

www.mogzilla.co.uk

Printed in Malta

The author would like to thank the following people for all of their help and encouragement:

Mum and Dad, Michele, Peter Pavement, The Chariot, Christina, Sam, Phil, Rupert, Nick, Sinc, Andrew, Twiz, Ed, Tanuja, Jon, Olivia, Nicole, Rachel, Mark, Caroline and Nic R.

The tale so far…

oudicat is the fourth book in the SPARTAPUSS B series. You don't need to have read the other titles to enjoy Boudicat. It is set in Roman times in a world ruled entirely by cats, where humans have never existed.

In I AM SPARTAPUSS, the first book in the series, SPARTAPUSS is comfortable managing Spatopia, Rome’s finest Bath and Spa. He is a loyal servant to his master CLAWDIUS – a cat of the Imperial Family. But Fortune has other plans for him. There is a nasty incident in the vomitorium. It causes offence to ‘CATLIGULA’ the wouldbe heir to the throne. SPARTAPUSS is thrown into prison, only to be released into gladiator training school. At the end of his training, he is given a golden coin by his teacher TEFNUT. He fights at the Games and is freed by CATLIGULA. Shortly afterwards, SPARTAPUSS rescues CATLIGULA from a chariot crash.

CATLIGULA is the second book in the series. When CATLIGULA becomes Emperor, his madness brings Rome to within a whisker of disaster. He poisons those he believes are his enemies and makes his pet RATTUS RATTUS a senator. The SPRAETORIAN GUARD plot to get rid of him and need SPARTAPUSS to help. SPARTAPUSS agrees but at the last minute changes his mind and helps CATLIGULA to escape. He convinces

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the Emperor that he is needed to perform a play. During the performance, the Arena is flooded in mysterious circumstances and CATLIGULA is lost. The Emperor’s PURRMANIAN BODYGUARDS go on the rampage, looking for revenge for the death of their master. They find CLAWDIUS (CATLIGULA’s uncle) hiding on top of a cupboard. On SPARTAPUSS’S suggestion, they pronounce that CLAWDIUS is Emperor of the Known World.

In DIE CLAWDIUS, the third book in the series, CLAWDIUS decides to invade The Land of the Kitons. SPARTAPUSS finds himself rounded up and forced aboard the first ship in the invasion fleet. He joins the landing party that sets out to search for the Kiton Army. Captured by two warriors, he escapes into the woods, where he meets FURG, a young Kiton studying to become a MEWID. After joining her at MEWID school, Spartapuss realizes he must choose between his new friends and the Emperor. Angry at the Roman invaders, FURG storms off to join the rebel army . SPARTAPUSS decides stay and look for her.

In BOUDICAT, the fourth book in the series, eighteen years have passed since the Invasion, and SPARTAPUSS, has grown rich, (like many other Roman settlers).

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Dramatis Pawsonae Who’s who!

From the deserts of Fleagypt to the forests of Purrmania, The Feline Empire rules the known world.

As Spartapuss takes up his diary again in AD 61, The Land of the Kitons has been under Roman rule for nearly eighteen years.

The Romans:

Nero – Young Emperor of Rome, a terrible singer. Governor Mewtonius – rules The Land of the Kitons on behalf of the Emperor. The Procurator – collects taxes for the Emperor.

The Kitons:

King Praws – Old King of the Micini Boudicat – Queen of the Micini tribe Mane and Curl – two warriors of the Micini tribe

The Boar Horse – a mythical beast, pictured on the coins of the Micini tribe

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Find out more atwww.mogzilla.co.uk

Mewnonius XXVIII June 28th

A Bill and a Will

his is the diary of Spartapuss. I am finding it hard to T get started this time, as I have not taken pen to paw for many long years. Why did I stop writing? Many summers ago I saved an old cleaner from a burning house. She was beating at the flames with a big brush, when I dragged her out to a safe place. She thanked me and promised to do me a favour if I bought her a fowl dinner. Luckily, there are many places where you can get a fowl dinner here in The Land of the Kitons. In Rome they say that the Kitons live near The Land of the Dead. This shows in their food. They have two different ‘schools’ of cooking here: boil it to mush or burn it to ash. Anyway, I was telling you about the cleaner. I took her to a roast bird place near my house. There are many of these roasting shops in the east of the town of Londump. The pigeons of East Londump have become the fastest flappers in the whole of the Feline Empire. They have to move fast to escape the roasting tins of the locals. Well, we soon got our whiskers into our bowls and began to strip the blackened meat off the bones. Suddenly, the old cleaner popped out a gnarled claw and flipped my bowl up. High into the air it sailed, as high as

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Apawllo’s chariot. Then it fell to the floor with a clatter. “For Peus, sake,” I cursed. “I’m paying good money for that bird. I’ll have it if you don’t want it.” Shaking and hissing, the old cleaner sprang up onto the table and clawed at my pigeon bones like a wolf in winter. Now, I had taken her for a cleaner because she had this great big brush made of twigs. She would not let it out of her sight and she clung to it, even as I dragged her out of the flames. I know something of brushes, as I am in the brush trade myself. This one was on a great long stick, a bit like our Roman brooms but rougher and with bristles as thick as lambs’ tails. Now that I think about it, this cleaner might have had what the locals here call ‘the gift’. For it is said that there are many witches in this dark land at the edge of the Empire. A witch can tell the future by ‘reading the bones’. In fact, bones are a popular read in this island, where books are as rare as a rainless summer. The old tabby looked at the bones and then at me, and then up to the sky. She carried on like this for a long time. So long that I nearly asked the innkeeper for separate bills. At last, she fixed me with a glare and told me to listen very carefully. She called me to come close. “You've been unlucky,” she hissed. “Cursed, even...” “I wouldn't go that far,” I replied. Although it is true that I have had some unlucky spins from Fortune’s wheel. “Silence!” she spat. “I’ve seen the truth of your whole life – so listen if you want to hear it.” In a whisper, she told me that the reason for all my

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