I’ve written three novels for teenagers set in ancient times (Troy, Ithaka  and Dido) and in each I’ve described young people of about sixteen who are in love. In some cases, the love is sexual as well as romantic and while I’ve never been too detailed about what goes on in the bedrooms, I’ve been as frank as I wish to be without censorship from anyone.

I haven’t had a difficulty with this and no one else has either. Sometimes I wish some newspaper would get their knickers in a twist about one of my books. This would bring them to the attention of millions, but alas, no one has even noticed that I’ve written about a young boy who is sure he’s gay and falls in love with a school friend (silent snow, secret snow) nor has anyone commented on the gay relationship between two women in my latest adult novel, A Hidden Life.

With the ancient world, you come up against another problem. There was no such thing as the age of consent in those days and I’ve tried to make sure that my heroines and heroes are at least sixteen, even if I may be sacrificing some accuracy. In Dido, I chose not to have Dido as a point of view character and this meant the key love scene has to be observed by a young lad who works in the kitchens of the palace. This was tricky: you don’t want to be voyeuristic and I hope I’ve managed to convey the action in a satisfactory way.

In all three novels, I’ve highlighted the teenage characters and not the ones we know from Homer and Virgil. This is because the books are for young people who may not necessarily be familiar with the classical texts.

The language has to be apt but modern. I’ve got some swearing but not four letter words and I try and make my young people behave in a way that’s both universal and particular. For instance, in Ithaka there’s a slogan chalked on the tavern wall: Poseidon Rules.

Why not? I’m sure kids in those days scrawled on buildings in exactly the same way children do today. The love they felt, too, was the same emotion we all recognise.

Dido was published in May 2009 by David Fickling Books