August 2015 Debut of the Month Taggie and Jemima seem like perfectly ordinary girls, though twelve year old Taggie has an unusual talent for cloudbusting… The cloudbursting is a portend of things to come when the girls’ usual summer fortnight with their father on his Lincolnshire farm is interrupted in the most surprising way: their father is pulled down an old well by strange creatures, and a talking white squirrel informs the girls that he is in fact a prince, and they are royals of the First Realm, descended from a queen. Can they rescue their father and save their kingdom? A satisfying and well-written adventure that nods to Carroll and Barrie while creating a fantasy world all of its own. ~ Andrea Reece
Taggie and her younger sister Jemima are just like any other girls their age. They live with their mum, go to school, play sports and spend their holidays with their dad in the countryside. But one day, everything changes ...when a white squirrel wearing purple glasses turns up in their lives.
The next thing the sisters know, their dad has been kidnapped, and it's up to the girls to get him back. But it seems their father has been keeping some very large secrets from his young daughters, for their dad is no ordinary man. He is an otherworldly prince in exile, and the land he should be ruling, the First Realm, has been overthrown by the King of Night.
Can Taggie and Jemima find their way between the worlds to save their father, and what other secrets has he been hiding? Before long, the sisters realise that it is not just their dad's life at stake. It's the future of a whole world.
Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960 and still lives in that county. He began writing adult science fiction and fantasy in 1987 and since then has sold over two million books in the UK alone and is the UK's bestselling science-fiction author. He has two young children who inspired him to write for a younger audience. The Secret Throne is his first book in the fantastic Queen of Dreams children's fantasy trilogy.
