Greg James and Chris Smith on The Kid Who Fell Through Time

Article | Jul 2025

Bestselling authors GREG JAMES and CHRIS SMITH are back with The Kid Who Fell Through Time, an epic and hilarious time travel adventure that takes you from Roman Britain to the Ancient Egyptians. Read on for a Q&A with the author.

 What sparked the idea for The Kid Who Fell Through Time?

We loved the idea of a shopping trolley that can travel through time. They so often have a wonky wheel and are difficult to steer so we thought it would be funny that it kept ending up in the wrong place. Then we come up with our hero Angus who hates doing his history homework and it all started coming together!

What can you tell us about the adventures Angus will go on?

The best thing about writing a time travel book is that you can visit all your favourite periods in history. So we’ve got Vikings, ancient Egypt, Roman Times and even William Shakespeare’s house! There’s a little jaunt to the Jurassic era as well and we have a quick glimpse of what goes on in the far future. 

Did you discover any surprising facts during your research for this book?

We have a character called the Fact Pig who pops up throughout the book and gives you lots of fascinating nuggets about history. Our favourite is all about toilet paper but we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for you! We loved doing the research for this book and we even had a visit to the British Museum to look at all the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

If you could travel back in time – where would you go and why?

Marge, who is the owner of the time trolley, visits history to look for interesting cheeses. We both love cheese so we’d love to go on an adventure with Marge to find some of the most delicious ones. Maybe France or Italy a couple of hundred years ago? We bet they had some delicious cheeseboards going on.

What was your favourite part of writing this book?

There’s a character called the evil Emperor Kragg from the 99th century. We enjoyed writing the parts where he has to try and navigate through life in 2025. Especially trying to use the self checkout at the supermarket!

Describe this book in three words!

Time… trolley… CHEESE! 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

GREG JAMES AND CHRIS SMITH are the multi-award-wining and bestselling authors of The Great Dream Robbery, Super Ghost and the Kid Normal series. They have been translated into over 20 languages and been shortlisted for both the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Laugh Out Loud Award. Greg and Chris have championed children’s books widely, were judges for the Blue Peter Book Award in 2017 and were official World Book Day authors in 2020. They are also committed advocates for children’s literacy and are founding members of the Primary School Library Alliance – a campaign launched by Penguin Random House and the National Literacy Trust to address the lack of investment in UK primary school libraries – and were awarded in 2024 the Ruth Rendell Literacy Award, presented to those who have had the most significant influence on literacy in the UK over the past year, for their work promoting reading in schools. Outside of their writing partnership, Greg James is a radio and television broadcaster and Chris Smith a solo author of acclaimed children’s books Frankie Best Hates Quests and Clarity Jones and the Magical Detective Agency.