Roman Holiday

by Jodi Taylor

Published 17 June 2014

Another rollicking short story from the Chronicles of St Mary’s.

Question: What sort of idiot installs his mistress in his wife’s house? Especially when that mistress is Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, Queen of Egypt and the most notorious woman of her time?

Answer: Julius Caesar – poised to become King of Rome. Or as good as.

Question: At this potentially sensitive point in your political manoeuvrings, who are the last people you’d want crashing through the door, observing, recording, documenting …?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

Roman Holiday – an epic, stand alone tale set in Ancient Rome, 44 BC, featuring, in no particular order: an attempted murder, stampeding bullocks, Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, a bowl of poisonous snakes, a smallish riot, Julius Caesar, and Mr Markham’s wayward bosoms.


A Perfect Storm

by Jodi Taylor

Published 24 August 2017

You don’t have to travel through time to experience catastrophe on an epic scale, as the disaster-magnets from St Mary’s are about to find out…

For Max, what starts off as a perfectly normal week is about to degenerate into a quagmire of egotistical film producers, monumental pub crawls, unsigned contracts, exploding rocks, Professor Rapson and his megaphone, the world’s biggest bacon butty – and Angus – the third component of the most notorious love triangle since Menelaus, Paris and Whatshername – the one with the face they launched ships off.

A Perfect Storm of calamity, devastation and misfortune only ever encountered at St Mary’s.


The Steam-Pump Jump

by Jodi Taylor

Published 12 July 2018

A St Mary's Chronicles Short Story

Not one to let being banged up in Sick Bay stop her, Max has had a brilliant idea. But she needs Markham to execute it on her behalf. The subject of this cunning plan is Peterson, struggling with another bereavement and not doing very well. What’s needed to get him through it is sympathy, sensitivity, tact and understanding.

Step forward Mr Markham, for whom sympathy, sensitivity, etc., are things that happen to other people.

Combine a fanatic from R&D, a head of Security with his own problems, a steam-pump, two historians who can’t even be in the same room as each other, some fractious Protestants and a large body of very dirty water.

Told in Markham’s own words, this is the story of an intervention – St Mary’s style.


When a Child is Born

by Jodi Taylor

Published 6 November 2013

It's Christmas Day 1066 and a team from St Mary's is going to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror.

Or so they think.

However, History seems to have different plans for them and when Max finds herself delivering a child in a peasant's hut, she can't help wondering what History is up to.


A Chronicles of St Mary's short story that is sure to entertain. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor.

**Includes bonus St Mary's escapades Desiccated Water and Markham and the Anal Probing - never before heard in audio - and original introductions read by the author herself**

'Max, your father is here. He's come to take Matthew away'

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Max's husband met Max's father? What would Leon do?

They're normally a fairly amiable bunch, but this is the story of what to expect if St Mary's doesn't like someone. As in, really doesn't like someone. Warning: contains a unit-wide criminal enterprise, a great deal of illegal activity and a sad misuse of public resources. All the things a father will do to protect his family.

It is also a story of revenge. Because this is payback - St Mary's style.

**Bonus stories**

Desiccated Water - Professor Rapson breaks astonishing new ground with his latest feat of scientific invention.

Markham and the Anal Probing - When Markham disappears in the middle of nowhere, Max jumps to the only logical conclusion - alien abduction.

Readers love Jodi Taylor:

'Once in a while, I discover an author who changes everything... Jodi Taylor and her protagonista Madeleine "Max" Maxwell have seduced me'

'A great mix of British proper-ness and humour with a large dollop of historical fun'

'Addictive. I wish St Mary's was real and I was a part of it'

'Jodi Taylor has an imagination that gets me completely hooked'

'A tour de force'

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