In this, the second in Caroline Lawrence's Time Travel Diaries series, we move from London to Athens, and to the middle of the Peloponnesian War (precise time to be revealed, no spoilers here).

In the first Time Travel Diary adventure, schoolboy Alex was convinced to return to Roman London by the slightly sinister Solomon Daisy, in a quest to find a girl. His enemy Dinu followed him, but the experience brought them together. They returned to the present day safely, and now find themselves unexpectedly cool at school, having become famous in popular culture thanks to Daisy's interference. The superficiality of celebrity life brings benefits, but things don't settle for the boys. They're whisked off to Athens for a mystery holiday, and foolishly fail to realise that Solomon Daisy has escaped prison and is setting them up. The lure of fame and fortune convinces them to take on the next quest, which is a simple journey to spend time with Socrates and find out what he was ‘really like’. The plot moves quickly as the teenagers face challenge after challenge. If the first Time Travel book established and tested the concept, the second pushes it to see what happens if the author and concept grow with the characters and become ever more daring.

Lawrence is the queen of the ‘what-if’ scenario, and is masterly in combining this with a quest to understand Socrates. From teenagers driving chariots, to girls shaking off the shackles of their gender, there are escapes and japes galore. The time travellers break the rules, which she of course invented, and have to work out how to suffer the consequences. Handling bodily functions is one (and Lawrence is of course well-known for her familiarity with the Roman sponge on a stick), but events move from the scatological to the ontological. The book handles themes of growing up (physically, emotionally, intellectually, in relationship terms), where to find courage, who a good mentor might be, mixing the pain of personal situations at an individual level with their global impact.

The writing remains as vivid as ever. She invokes all our senses, asking us to enter Athens with the child's curiosity and a teenager's disdain. Sights, smells, sounds and tastes are all brought out, along with the bodily sensations of bouncing in a chariot or even squelching through something unmentionable. Archaeological sites are brought to life and put to good use, with real and imagined episodes coinciding. The author's research is thorough, and is made exciting through the time travel conceit's ability to present us with ‘as it happened’ views of familiar people and events. The boys meet ‘kid Plato’ and get a lesson in life from a snotty-nosed geek. Alcibiades imposes his presence on Athens and on the boys, and we reel from seeing him as villain and hero in quick succession, much, one feels, like many of his contemporaries must have done. Short chapters hurry us along as a simple plot gains twists and turns. The adventure lasts only a few days, but they are full of excitement.

Real life impinges in such a way as to draw in Classicists across the world, as well as general readers (children and adults alike). The Latin teacher is one Miss Forte (minus the mouse), and alongside Professor Armand D'Angour (whose Socrates in Love clearly influences the book), the boundary between real and imagined characters is truly blurred. Lawrence plays with this when she sees echoes of her fictional ancient characters in the other academic in the final chapters, one Dr Fotini Charis. The involvement of big corporations and big governments in the story leaves clear space for a further adventure, if both the children and the author are brave enough to take it on!