Eventually I found Heather Jeeves, a literary agent trapped for six weeks with a broken leg in New Zealand, who had plenty of time to consider how best to place such a “difficult” manuscript. Like many slightly unusual books, mine acquired a fine history of being rejected by publishers. Hearing of an editor who was rumoured to be a classicist (not true, in fact), Heather took The Silver Pigs to Oliver Johnson, who had recently been given the task of starting a fiction list at Sidgwick & Jackson, an imprint just acquired as a subsidiary of Macmillan. More astute than the others, Oliver bought the first two books, with the same contract giving paperback rights to another sharp young editor, Bill Scott-Kerr at Pan Books. An American sale of both titles quickly followed.

Almost as soon as the books were published in Britain, that mysterious force known as “word of mouth” began to prove us all right. Every new book in the series has remained consistently in print. This is the best possible tribute to those who had faith from the start. Without them and without the timely flukes that brought us all together, the first two books would probably never have appeared, and no more would have been written. While I shall always be grateful to Sidgwick and Pan for taking a risk with curiosities by a then unknown author, I am delighted that The Silver Pigs and its sequel Shadows in Bronze are now to be reissued in the same imprint as the rest of the Falco series, which Oliver, now a magisterial presence at Random House, still edits. For the first time, all the Falco books will be together, and I have the thrill of seeing a brand new version of my first book. This time, I am allowed to introduce it too!

I had always read historical novels and when I started to be a writer historical subjects attracted me most. I believed that there was a keen audience waiting for good stories with an interesting period background. Novels which deliberately set out to force-feed history to people are ghastly, but that’s a different thing. Shun those authors’ books—and settle down instead with the proper stuff. My correspondents, who are people of all ages, orientations and backgrounds, confirm that they have a huge appetite for the past. Some do like learning from scratch in an entertaining way, others are nostalgic for the classics they learned in their youth. Then there are keen re-enactment groups hankering for anything that connects with their chosen period, together with many young people studying ancient history, archaeology, or classical languages, who enjoy a more relaxed perspective on their serious studies. All Falco enthusiasts are looking for the proverbial “good read.” Fiction readers want escapism. One way of achieving it is to go into a different world; be it fantasy, travel, or the past—and with this series I could see from the start I could encompass all three.