The author Damian Dibben has written a book about a 14-year-old boy who goes time travelling. People say the boy is the new Harry Potter. But Jake’s adventures take him to different times in history.

David Dibben read from the book and explained that he always wanted to time-travel when he was young, and the book was a way of showing people what it would be like to live in another time.

In the book, the main character Jake is suddenly in a secret world of time travel, controlled by a mystery society, The History Keepers, who travel through time to defeat their evil enemies.

To feel what it was like to be a time traveller, the Young Friends were trained to fight with muskets for the Battle of Waterloo in 1812 and then shown how a Tudor surgeon would have chopped off arms and legs.

The Tudor surgeon was fascinating because it was so gross and even included viewing a live blood-sucking leech – safely imprisoned in a glass jar.

The Young Friends event helped some of the history from the novel come alive and I think I understand more about the lives of people in the past.

The History Keepers: The Storm Begins is out now – www.thehistorykeepers.com.

Upcoming Young Friends event details can be found at: www.britishmuseum.org/membership/events.aspx.