Formerly a librarian, Theresa's first book, Simon's Challenge, won the Young Book Trust Fidler Award for new writers. She was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Whispers in the Graveyard, and Remembrance, her tale of young people in the First World War, was selected for the American Library Assocaiation's Best Books for Young adults.

The minute that Marubetta meets Lucius, she hates him - pompous, stuck-up nephew of a Roman official! He thinks that, as a Briton, she is terribly provincial and she finds him arrogant and big-headed. But the year is 397 AD and life in Roman Britain is getting dangerous. And when Marinetta's home near Hadrian's Wall is raided, Marinetta and Lucius are forced to act together.