"At a book launch I bought, out of politeness, a new children's "thriller" called The Double Axe by Philip Womack (with a child-friendly price of £6.99) set in the world of King Minos of Crete and the Minotaur. I began to leaf through, then could not put the book down, so easy to read it was like being in a trance. You can virtually taste the blood, smell the sea breezes, touch the stone walls of the palace as you run your hands along them, inhabit the strong young body of the 13 year old narrator and feel his fear and exhilaration. The pages almost turned themselves as my brain was effortlessly filled with data normally the preserve of scholarly classicists."
