About Adam Caplan
Adam Caplan is the author of Mathatar, an adventure series for young readers and curious adults about maths, history, portals, reality and a fox-red Labrador called Fella.
Before turning his focus to fiction, Adam spent more than twenty-five years in sales training, leadership coaching and communication. His work has always centred on helping people understand ideas, build confidence and take action.
That background now feeds directly into his writing.
Adam is interested in the moment when something that once felt difficult suddenly becomes human. A concept clicks. A story lands. A person who thought “that’s not for me” begins to think differently.
Mathatar grew from that same instinct.
For many children, mathematics can feel like pressure, tests and fear of getting things wrong. But mathematics is also one of the oldest human stories: counting, measuring, trading, building, navigating, predicting, proving and trying to understand the universe.
Adam wanted to write an adventure that made that feel alive.
Not a textbook.
Not a lesson pretending to be a story.
A proper adventure — with danger, humour, friendship, strange enemies, ancient cities, emotional stakes and a dog who definitely has his own priorities.
Adam lives in the UK and is currently developing the Mathatar series, school-facing content, articles and speaking opportunities connected to storytelling, creativity and maths confidence.
Mathatar is important to me…
I did not want to write a book that told children maths was important.
I wanted to write a story that made them feel it. Mathatar started out as an idea for helping children engage with Maths. Back in 2017 I developed a game that almost made it to publication. It didn’t, but the story didn’t die. It changed, it morphed and it grew.
Eventually, it became the book that was completed earlier this year. Part of a series of exciting stories.
The best stories do not lecture. They open a door. They make us curious. They let us experience something before we fully understand it.
That is what I hope Mathatar does.
It begins with a girl noticing that something is wrong. It grows into a journey through history, reality and the ideas that make the world make sense.
And somewhere in the middle of it all is Fella, who usually knows more than anyone gives him credit for.
— Adam
This is ten years ago, when Mathatar was conceptualised and I had much shorter hair!