Just One Damned Thing After Another
“History is just one damned thing after another.”
Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary’s, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don’t do ‘time-travel’ – they ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power – especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.
Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document – to try and find the answers to many of History’s unanswered questions…and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back – to the death. And, as they soon discover – it’s not just History they’re fighting.
Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake….
A Symphony of Echoes
Follow a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History.
Wherever the historians go, chaos is sure to follow…
Dispatched to Victorian London to seek out Jack the Ripper, things go badly wrong when he finds the St Mary’s historians first. Stalked through the fog-shrouded streets of Whitechapel, Max is soon running for her life. Again.
And that’s just the start. Max finds herself in a race against time when an old enemy is intent on destroying St Mary’s. An enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself.
From the Hanging Gardens of Nineveh to the murder of Thomas a Becket, via an unscheduled dodo rescue mission, join the historians of St Mary’s as they hurtle around History on more hilarious, hair-raising escapades.
A Second Chance
History happens all around you. And, occasionally, to you.
I could have been a bomb-disposal expert, or a volunteer for the Mars mission, or a firefighter, something safe and sensible. But, no, I had to be an historian.
It began well. A successful assignment to 17th century Cambridge to meet Isaac Newton, and another to witness the historic events at The Gates of Grief. So far so good.
But then came the long-awaited jump to the Trojan War that changed everything. And for Max, nothing will ever be the same again.
With the bloody Battle of Agincourt playing out around her, Max risks everything on one last desperate gamble to save a life and learns the true meaning of a second chance.
A Trail through Time
Sometimes, surviving is all you have left.
Max and Leon are safe at last. Or so they think.
Snatched from her own world and dumped into a new one, Max is soon running for her life. Again.
From a 17th century Frost Fair to Ancient Egypt; from Pompeii to 8th century Scandinavia; Max and Leon are pursued up and down the timeline, playing a dangerous game of hide-and-seek, until finally they’re forced to take refuge at St Mary’s where a new danger awaits them.
Max’s happily ever after is going to have to wait a while…
No Time Like the Past
The fifth book in the bestselling British madcap time-travelling series, served with a dash of wit that seems to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”–these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets. The Chronicles of St. Mary’s tells the chaotic adventures of Madeleine Maxwell and her compatriots—Director Bairstow, Leon “Chief” Farrell, Mr. Markham, and many more—as they travel through time, saving St. Mary’s (too often by the very seat of their pants) and thwarting time-travelling terrorists, all the while leaving plenty of time for tea.
In No Time Like the Past, St. Mary’s has been rebuilt, and it’s nearly back to business as usual for the history department. Except for the visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral with a seventeenth-century ghost that only Mr. Markham can see. And getting trapped in the Great Fire of London. And an unfortunately-timed vacation at Thermopylae that leaves the fate of the western world hanging in the balance. Actually, that sounds quite like business as usual for Max and the gang.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
What if the course of history was on your shoulders?
‘To do what I do—go where I go—see what I see—it’s a wonderful, unique, never-to-be-taken-for-granted privilege.’
With great privilege comes great responsibility, something Max knows only too well, and as newly appointed Chief Training Officer at the St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, it’s up to her to drum this guiding principle into her five new recruits.
With a training programme that includes Joan of Arc, an illegal mammoth, a duplicitous Father of History, a bombed rat, Stone Age hunters and Dick the Turd, the question everyone is asking themselves is—what could possibly go wrong?
Lies, Damned Lies, and History
Rules are meant to be broken, aren’t they?
‘I’ve done some stupid things in my time. I’ve been reckless. I’ve broken a few rules. But never before have I ruined so many lives or left such a trail of destruction behind me.’
Max has never been one for rules. They tend to happen to other people.
But this time she’s gone too far. And everyone at St Mary’s is paying the price.
With the History Department disintegrating around her and grounded until the end of time, how can she ever put things right?
And the Rest Is History
The eighth book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary’s series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History.
Because, my dear Max, you dance on the edge of darkness … and I don’t think it would take very much for you to dance my way.
When an old enemy appears out of nowhere with an astonishing proposition for Max – a proposition that could change everything Max is tempted. Very tempted.
With an end to an old conflict finally in sight, it looks as if St Mary’s problems are over with. Can they all now live happily ever after?
As everything hangs in the balance, Max and St Mary’s find themselves engulfed in tragedies worse than they could ever imagine.
Is this the end?
An Argumentation of Historians
Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”―these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets.
From Tudor England to the burning city of Persepolis, from a medieval St. Mary’s under siege to Victorian Rushford and a very nasty case of gaol fever, Max is struggling to keep her private life intact. There’s an ambitious programme hindered by giant teapots, plus Mrs. Midgely’s objection to dead hamsters in her airing cupboard, and Mr. Markham’s stubborn refusal to reveal his exact marital status.
And as if that’s not enough―the unfortunately not leprosy-laden Malcolm Halcombe is back. Admittedly, none of this is the most secure platform from which to launch an initiative to bring down the renegade Clive Ronan, but hey―what’s the worst that could happen?
Hope for the Best
The tenth book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary’s series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History.
You can’t change History. History doesn’t like it. There are always consequences.
Max is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands. Especially when she’s had A Brilliant Idea. Yes, it will mean breaking a few rules, but – as Max always says – they’re not her rules.
Seconded to the Time Police to join in the hunt for the renegade Clive Ronan, Max is a long way from St Mary’s. But life in the future does have its plus points – although not for long.
A problem with the Time Map reveals chaos in the 16th century and the wrong Tudor queen on the throne. History has gone rogue, there’s a St Mary’s team right in the firing line and Max must step up.
You know what they say. Hope for the best. But plan for the worst.
Plan for the Worst
I would have trusted this man with my life. Until a couple of days ago, anyway.
You know what they say – hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
Max is quite accustomed to everything going wrong. She’s St Mary’s, after all. Disaster is her default state. But with her family reunited and a jump to Bronze Age Crete in the works, life is getting back to normal. Well, normal for St Mary’s.
And then, following one fateful night at the Tower of London, everything Max thought she knew comes crashing down around her.
Too late for plans. The worst has happened. And who can Max trust now?
Another Time, Another Place
It’s long been known that if a thing can go wrong, it will. With knobs on, usually. Disasters start to pile up. A new colleague with no respect for the past and a great deal to prove.
Historians lost in time. And – worst of all – Rosie Lee on her very first jump. Then there’s the small matter of Max’s dishonourable discharge.
From Tudor England to the Tower of Babel – it’s all going horribly wrong.
Jobless and homeless, Max receives an offer she can’t refuse. Another time, another place. A refuge, perhaps.
She’s got that wrong, too.
A Catalogue of Catastrophe
Finally – finally! – Max has that nice office job she’s always wanted. The one with no heavy lifting and no one tries to kill her. Well, one out of two’s not bad…
Punching well above their weight, Max and Markham set out to bring down a sinister organisation founded in the future – with a suspicious focus on the past.
Max’s focus is staying alive long enough to reunite with Leon and Matthew, alternately helped and hindered by St Mary’s. Who aren’t always the blessing they like to think they are.
But non-stop leaping around the timeline – from witnessing Magna Carta to disturbing a certain young man with a penchant for gunpowder – is beginning to take its toll. Is Max going mad? Or are the ghosts of the past finally catching up with her?
The Good, the Bad and the History
St Mary’s is under investigation. Their director has been shot and Max is Number One Suspect. Can things get any worse? We all know the answer to that one.
Max needs to get away – fast – and a Brilliant Idea soon leads her to a full-scale uprising in twentieth-century China. If she can come by a historical treasure or two in the process, even better. That is, if she makes it out alive.
Then there’s the small matter of Insight – the sinister organisation from the future hell bent on changing History for their own dark ends. Having successfully infiltrated their ranks, Max is perfectly placed to stop them. But she knows her cover will soon be blown – because it’s already happened.
Can Max take down Insight before they come after her? The circle is closing, and only one can survive.
My Take
I stormed through this series. Loved the sense of humor, the characters, the world(s), the suspense. Just great fun, with just enough sadness and drama to keep it from being too icky sweet and unbelievable. I look forward now to the spinoff series! Why did it take me so long to find these?