Archie Green is a book whisperer and just about to start as an apprentice at the Museum of Magical Miscellany hidden beneath the Bodleian Library in Oxford. For a certain reader – indeed a large percentage in all likelihood – that line is enough to make them settle back happily in the knowledge that the book will offer magic, trials, magical creatures, and a wealth of secrets waiting to be discovered; everything in fact, that you want from a good story. And they will be right, there’s all that and more. D D Everest creates a truly satisfying other world and in Archie a hero that children will identify with and want to be. There is a great deal to enjoy in this classic fantasy adventure. ~ Andrea Reece
This is definitely a book to recommend to fans of Harry Potter, while those who want more in this vein will also enjoy Abi Elphinstone’s Dream Snatcher series and Philip Womack’s Darkening Path books which also weave spells around readers.
Archie's cousin, Thistle, is about to start his apprenticeship at the Museum of Magical Miscellany. But when it comes to his initiation, the firemark that burns into Thistle's hand is a strange one, and Archie and Bramble are given it too. The Golden Circle is the mark of an ancient alchemist's club and when Archie and his cousins learn about a curse that threatens their beloved museum, they have no choice but to start their own alchemist's club, and face the darkest kind of magic. Welcome to a wonderful, magical world where bookshelves are enchanted, librarians are sorcerers and spells come to life.
D. D. Everest is a successful business journalist and author who has written a number of adult non-fiction books. Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret is his first book for children. Des lives with his family in a rambling Victorian house on the Ashdown Forest.
