The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine is a splendid period adventure, set in London not long before the First World War. Sophie Taylor is facing a new beginning. Orphaned and impoverished, she’s about to start her new job at Simpson’s, the brand-new luxury department store that’s opening in Piccadilly. (Simpson’s is a… Read More
The nice folk at Cargo Publishing sent me a preview of the cover of my book, The Wreck of the Argyll, a while back, and I’ve been itching to talk about it ever since. It would have been rude of me to start posting pictures before anyone else, so I had to hold off, but… Read More
Today was a very exciting day – my box of author copies of The Wreck of the Argyll turned up from those lovely people at Cargo Publishing. The official release date isn’t until September 25th, over a month away, but it’s one of the perks of being the author that you get the books a little… Read More
The Thieves of Ostia is the first in Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries series. The greatest mystery of this book is: how on Earth did it take me so long to read it? Historical fiction? Great! Child detectives? Right up my street. Set in Ancient Rome? I studied Classics at university, for goodness’ sake! It would… Read More
This is what would happen to me. Guaranteed. If an alien visited Earth and granted superpowers to one person, I’d just have stepped outside, or gone to make a sandwich, or (like Luke in My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons) needed to go for a wee. Luke knows everything there is to know… Read More
The D’Evil Diaries by Tatum Flynn does exactly what it says on the tin – these are the diaries of Jinx D’Evil, the 666th son of Lucifer the fallen angel, ruler of Hell. In many respects, he’s a normal 12-year-old boy – he struggles with his lessons, misses his absent mum, idolises his big brother,… Read More
It was announced earlier this evening that Rosie Rowell and her editor Emily Thomas had won the Branford Boase award for Leopold Blue. This is an interesting book prize, in that it celebrates the editor of the book as well as the writer, and recognises that publishing a book is a collaborative process. So it seems… Read More
My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat! by Pamela Butchart is the hilarious story of Izzy and her friends Jodi, Maisie and Zach, whose overactive imaginations get them into all sorts of trouble. There are strange goings-on at the school. Classrooms are shut with mysterious notices, rumours of rat infestations abound, the headteacher has disappeared, and… Read More
A Devil Under the Skin is the third thriller from Anya Lipska starring police officer Natalie Kershaw and Polish private eye Janusz Kiszka. I’m a big fan of this series – see my list of my favourite books in 2014 which included Where the Devil Can’t Go and Death Can’t Take a Joke, the first two… Read More
Fingal’s Ghost, by Kathleen Fidler, is a wartime adventure in which plucky children foil a German spy plot involving a submarine. My forthcoming book, The Wreck of the Argyll, is a wartime adventure in which plucky children foil a German spy plot involving a submarine. But, honest, I read Fingal’s Ghost just recently, long after I’d… Read More