Books published by publisher Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

The days between 27 December and New Year's Eve are dead days - days when spirits roam and magic shifts restlessly just beneath the surface of our everyday lives. There is a man, Valerian, whose time is running out, who must pay the price for the pact he made with evil so many years ago. His servant is Boy, a child with no name and no past; a child he treats with contempt, but who serves his master well and finds solace in the company of his only friend, Willow. Unknown to any of them, it is Boy who holds the key to their destiny. Set in dark threatening cities and the frozen countryside in a distant time and place of the author's making, 'The Book of Dead Days' conjures a spell-binding story of sorcery and desperate magic as Valerian, Boy and Willow battle to stop time and cling to life. Beautifully evoked, dramatic and emotionally powerful.

Timmy Twinkle is chubby. That means he gets bullied at school and hasn't any friends. He longs to play football, but he's hopeless at games. He's miserable. And it doesn't help when Gramps tells him about Great-Uncle Vernon, a chubby boy who grew up to be a famous footballer. Then his gran's friend May comes to stay. May is a fitness fanatic who knocks Timmy and Gramps into shape in no time, and Timmy discovers there's magic in his toes - he can kick a ball just like Great-Uncle Vernon. And when Timmy performs on the football field, everyone wants to be friends with him.

Of all the characters in The Seeing Stone and At the Crossing-Places, it is Gatty the village girl - steadfast, forthright, innocent and wise -- who has won the hearts of readers. This is her story, written down at her behest by her childhood friend and hero, Arthur de Caldicot. Gatty's dream is to follow Arthur to Jerusalem - though she has not even understood that Jerusalem is farther away than Ludlow, and across the sea. As he sets out on the crusade, Gatty, unknown to him, follows. Her extraordinary journey on foot across Europe and towards the east makes a marvellous medieval adventure story. Separate from the Arthur trilogy, this ambitious novel picks up many of its strands and characters but leaves fantasy behind to create a magnificently vivid and realistic picture of life and times in the Europe of 1202.