Portia and Bob Go to Italy

Glenis Carlton

Description

Portia and Bob Go to Italy is the second in the series of adventures about a little cat and a cheeky fox in their quest to meet the famous playwright, Mister Shakespeare. This time, the Magic Staff takes them from their home at the Globe Theatre to the Forum in Ancient Rome where assassins are plotting to overthrow Julius Caesar and to the Colosseum with its ferocious lions and gladiators. Find out what other surprises await them in their magical world... With interesting and lively background material on Elizabethan London, the book is also a children's introduction to Shakespeare's plays.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528966528
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

About the Author
A teacher of English and French in many countries and fluent in several languages, the author has written several published works: two French plays for students, Zut Alors and C’est Génial; Music of the Spheres: An Unfinished Journey (autobiographical). Her first children’s book, Four Snails and an Umbrella (2016), was followed by Portia and Bob at the Globe (2017). She has two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren, who live in Australasia. She has also been a tour guide at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for 19 years.





Copyright Information
Copyright © Glenis Carlton (2019)
Illustrated by Rhea Seren Phillips
The right of Glenis Carlton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528931113 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528966528 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ


Dedication
To Stefano, Mo and Yasso


Acknowledgements
With many thanks to my family for their interest and invaluable support and to Rhea for her beautiful, imaginative illustrations


Portia and Bob Go to Italy


“In Ancient Rome a wild rose hanging on the door was the symbol of a secret meeting.”



“And where do you think the staff will take us to this time?” The cat asked the fox as they carried what appeared to be a long piece of curved wood into the middle of the yard and placed it in front of the stage.
Yet this was no ordinary length of timber but a Staff with supernatural power. Nor were the cat and the fox quite like other animals. Their names were Portia and Bob, two friends whose home was under the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre beside the River Thames. The theatre, too, was unlike any other as it was open to the sky, a creation of oak beams and plaster with a flag pole on top of its thatched roof. It was, in fact, a reconstruction of the first Globe theatre which had burnt down over four hundred years ago, a theatre where people came to see the plays of a very famous playwright called William Shakespeare.
So when Portia asked Bob where he thought the Magic Staff would take them she was thinking about the last time when after watching a play called ‘The Tempest’, the Staff belonging to the sorcerer, Prospero, had rolled off the stage and they had claimed it as their own. It had taken them on an adventurous journey to visit the Greek Gods on Mount Olympus. Next morning they had hidden the Staff under the stage realising what fun they could have with it. From that time onwards at midnight after the spectators had left the theatre, they padded softly into the yard with the Staff and came to watch THEIR play, magical images we cannot see.


Bob did not answer Portia’s question as he sensed that some actors were about to appear on stage. The night was mysterious, eerie. Not even the scuttling of a mouse broke the silence, only the roaring of a chained bear and sometimes the howling of a dog from the kennels close to the River Thames on Bankside where the theatre stood. Towering storm clouds filled the sky and in the chill wind, spirals of mist floated up from the incoming black tide. Portia and Bob waited with bated breath for the actors to begin. Then, from the shadows two Roman noblemen wearing short-sleeved tunics and reddish-purple woollen togas crept stealthily into view onto the darkened stage, glancing furtively about them.
“He must be stopped, he has become a tyrant and the people will be his slaves,” said one named Cassius.
“But how?” said Brutus, “how can we stop him?”
The two men were meeting secretly in Brutus’s garden in Rome. Soon they were joined by three other Roman senators.
“When he goes to the Senate tomorrow to receive the crown from the people, we will kill him!” said Cassius.
They silently moved off into the darkness muttering, “A plan, yes