Dear Mr. Stroud,

I have two questions:

1. There were fourteen Ptolemy's in all of the Ptolemaic dynesty, which of the fourteen kings is the one described in your trilogy? (The cousin of the Ptolemy Bartimaeus liked) I was guessing it was the one commenly nicknamed "Fatboy" but I didn't have enough information to go by.

2. Is Bartimaeus' Ptolemy real? I was guessing no, but I could be wrong.


Thanks,
Artemis

Hi Artemis,

This is a good question and for the life of me I can't quite remember. You're absolutely right, there was a whole dynasty of Ptolemies, and I'm pretty sure that when I was researching it I found a couple late on who were very insignificant and had bad reputations for being debauched and generally rubbish. I certainly had one of these in mind for Bart's Ptolemy's evil cousin, but off the top of my head I can't recall his exact number. Anyone known as 'Fatboy' is quite likely to have a dodgy reputation, so you're probably spot on. The Ptolemies gradually depended more and more on Roman rule, which is hinted at in the book: Ptol's cousin is politically weak as well as morally so.

Bart's Ptolemy is fictitious. Originally I half-thought he might be something to do with the famous geographer Ptolemy, but then I realised that (a) he was an adult, while I wanted mine to die young and (B) he didn't have the political dimension. So I figured I'd focus on the historic dynasty and invent a minor member for it to be Bart's master and friend.

Cheers,

Jonathan