Books
All four Montmorency books are being reissued in new paperback editions. Here they are:
So now you may find three variations on the covers. Here's a taste of what each book is about, alongside its various disguises.
MONTMORENCY:
Set between 1875 and 1880, this is the story of a small-time crook whose life is transformed after an accident that
nearly kills him. An ambitious doctor (Robert Farcett) takes on the task of rebuilding his body, and shows him off
at meetings of a scientific society. At those meetings, Montmorency learns about the new underground network of sewers
under London. In prison, he plans a new life, stealing things all over London, and getting away through the smelly
underground passageways. When he is released, he takes on two identities: Scarper in the Dark underground world, and
Montmorency in high society. The book is all about his struggle to prevent each of his identities spoiling everything
for the other.
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from Amazon
Buy
the audio version from the BBC
MONTMORENCY ON THE ROCKS
Picks up the story in 1885. At the end of the first book, it seems that Montmorency has decided
to settle in the world of riches and goodness -- but five years on, his alter ego, Scarper is back, leading him into
a world of depravity. Yet Montmorency needs all his wits about him to solve two mysteries: Who is bombing London? and
why, far away on a Scottish island, has a whole generation of babies died? Lots of characters from the first book come
back to help Montmorency find the answers, and to try to save him from his darker self.
Buy the audio Version from the BBC
MONTMORENCY AND THE ASSASSINS
Starts much later – in 1898. Montmorency is getting older, and the world is changing with
new inventions, faster travel, and secret political activists threatening the stability of Europe. What begins as an
easy job turns into a life-threatening struggle to track down international terrorists. And this time Scarper seems
to have his clutches on someone else: Frank, the young nephew of Montmorency’s dearest friend Lord George Fox-Selwyn.
We are back in London and Scotland again, but also in Italy and America. Once again, everything might go disastrously
wrong...
MONTMORENCY'S REVENGE
Starts a few months after the end of Montmorency and the Assassins. What does he want revenge for? I won’t tell you in case I spoil the previous book. But I can say that the plot takes in the death of Queen Victoria and bloody events in America, France and Italy. Throughout the story Montmorency has to balance his personal obsessions against his public duties. As before, real and fictional events and people are mixed together in the plot. One character who really existed is Leopoldo Fregoli, who was an international superstar in his day. He was a mime artist and mimic, who was so good at imitating other people that his name was given to a psychiatric disorder involving identity. As you’d expect, this book has questions of identity at its heart.
The pen and ink drawings on the covers of all four books are by NIck Hardcastle
Other Work
Recently
I have been having fun writing short stories. One is in a book called THIRTEEN (edited
by John McLay and published by Orchard Books). It’s a collection of 13 stories, by 13 writers, about being 13.
The other writers in the book are Eoin Colfer, Mary Hooper, Kevin Brooks, Paul Bailey, Jean Ure, Marcus Sedgwick, Kay Woodward, Helen Oyeyemi, John McLay, Margaret Mahy, Bali Rai and Karen McCombie.
I’m thrilled to be in such good company.
My story is called DOUBLE THIRTEEN. It’s about a girl whose thirteenth birthday is on Friday 13 th.
I’ve also got a story in a
collection that Macmillan has put together to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. The book
is called WAR: STORIES ABOUT CONFLICT, and has been edited by Michael
Morpurgo. The other writers in that book include: Joan Aiken, Eva Ibbotson, Jamila Gavin, Elizabeth Laird, George Layton,
Geraldine McCaughrean, Margaret Mahy, Michelle Magorian, Michael Morpurgo, and Celia Rees.
My story is called Not a Scratch. It’s about the invisible victims of war: the people who don’t feature in the casualty figures, but whose families are nevertheless transformed for generations.