A LAVERSTOCK author is launching the fourth book in The Scar Gatherer series.

Julia Edwards will be at a special launch event of The Demon in the Embers at Waterstones in Salisbury on Saturday. The book is set in 1666, and plunges its hero, 11-year-old Joe Hopkins, right into the flames of the Great Fire of London.

"It's such an exciting moment in English history," said Julia. "It still holds a real fascination for us, as we've seen with all the events in London marking the 350th anniversary."

The previous books in the series have taken the hero, Joe, on adventures in Roman Britain, Viking York, and closer to home for Julia, Wardour Castle, in the third book, "The Falconer's Quarry", which was set in Tudor England.

"Like Joe in the books, whenever I visited a ruined castle as a child, I wished I could travel back in time and see what it was like in the old days. I really felt like that when I first took my children to Wardour," explains Julia.

"But what especially interests me is the kind of history we all live through — not battles, or politics, or kings and queens, but what it was actually like to eat the food and wear the clothes, what the loos were like, and how people washed.

"I've also stumbled across some really weird and wonderful things while I've been writing The Scar Gatherer books, like the recipes for Roman toothpaste (honey mixed with the ashes of dogs' bones) and hair dye (leeches rotted in red wine for forty days).

"While I was researching The Demon in the Embers, I discovered that rich ladies used to get rid of their own eyebrows using hair remover made with roast puppies and earthworms. As if that wasn't bad enough, they stuck on false eyebrows made out of mouse skins."

The Great Fire of London is the first major event to feature in Julia's books, and there is a serious side to this too, as she admits: "I always make a real effort to make sure my books are factually accurate, because they're being used in schools all over the country, and even abroad, as a fun way to teach children about different parts of history."

Young readers are a key part in Julia's writing process who are involved when the books are in the draft stage.

"I was Patron of Reading at Winterbourne Earls Primary School while I was writing The Demon in the Embers, which was great. For one thing, the children acted as cheerleaders for me, spurring me on with my writing.

"As with any job, I sometimes have difficult days when the words don't come very easily. But knowing that lots of faces were going to be looking up at me, wanting to hear where I'd got to since my last visit, helped to drive me onwards. I also read a few sections to the children, because it's really useful to try things out. You get a very clear sense of the way your audience is responding, which is invaluable," says Julia.

"It was the final part of the process where the children helped me most, however. They were really excited when I took the draft copies in for them to read, and quite a few children gave me feedback, telling me what they liked or didn't like, and pointing out words or passages that they didn't understand. I made a lot of changes as a result.'

The launch event runs from 2pm until 4pm. Entry is free, and Julia has invited a mystery special guest that readers of her series might be interested to meet.