LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2020
In post war Britain, four children are sent to stay in an ancient house deep in the countryside. Beyond the library door they find a world of warring stories. Only they can save the worlds behind the door and by doing so, bring peace to their own world. Children will be intrigued by the skilful drawing together of well-loved stories to create something splendid.
LoveReading4Kids
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About
The Lost Magician Synopsis
'If you can imagine it, it exists ... somewhere.' The new spellbinding fantasy adventure from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Last Wild trilogy.
1945. They have survived the Blitz, but when Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry step through a mysterious library door, it is the beginning of their most dangerous adventure yet. They discover the magical world of Folio, where an enchanted kingdom of fairy knights, bears and tree gods is under threat from a sinister robot army. The many stories of the Library are locked in eternal war, and the children's only hope is to find their creator - a magician who has been lost for centuries. What they find will change not just their own lives, but the fate of the world, for ever ...
An ode to the world of Narnia, The Lost Magician is a classic in the making from one of the UK's most talented children's authors.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781784294502 |
| Publication date: |
7th March 2019 |
| Author: |
Piers Torday |
| Publisher: |
Quercus Children's Books an imprint of Hachette Children's Group |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
329 pages |
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Press Reviews
Piers Torday Press Reviews
Praise for Piers Torday:
'the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure' - The Times
A particularly good novel to give an eager reader is The Lost Magician by Piers Torday. (Hachette) Narnia gets a modern update in this thoughtful reworking of the classic. Four siblings are drawn into the mysterious kingdom of Folio, where its inhabitants are locked in perpetual war - Ham & High Newspaper
In recent years, Piers Torday has emerged as a major new voice; his 2018 offering, The Lost Magician (Hachette), rewrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a tale of war-weary siblings entering a parallel world. There's a conflagration raging there too, between fantastical storybook characters and the harbingers of cool, hard logic - a false binary that has to be resolved, if some truly annihilating forces are to be stopped. Cue the never reads - the ghoulish ranks of the badly informed, the unimaginative and the incurious. Remind anyone of any other worlds? - The Guardian
a lustrously lovely ode to libraries, to imagination, and to the magic of a wonderful story - I Newspaper
a wonderful tribute to Narnia, CS Lewis and the magic of books and reading - S Magazine
Piers Torday's The Lost Magician (Quer-cus, GBP12.99, 10+) is artistically daring, channelling The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in having four children survive the Blitz to step into an enchanted library where magical stories are at war. It is as much about storytelling as about creating an enjoyable story, yet such is Torday's talent that when Evie tells the robotic Jana that You don't know me... the real me, inside my head , you want to cheer. - The New Statesman
The first of a trilogy, this is masterly storytelling, both entertaining and profound. - The Sunday Times
It's 1945 and four children step through a magical door into the world of Folio - a nod to CS Lewis - where characters from stories are locked in a battle. Only the magician who created them can help. Piers Torday (The Last Wild, There May Be A Castle) has an unrelenting imagination, cleverly mixing nostalgia and modernity. After reading this you will never look at a bookmark in the same way. -- Alex O'Connell - The Times
A phenomenal adventure story - The Independent
This beautiful homage to Narnia sees renowned children's writer Torday explore what it is to be a reader and the power of books and libraries, as well as the imagination. Fantastical but with real heart, this immersive story is sure to become a firm favourite. - Book Trust
Wildly inventive, moving and gripping ... full of suspense without ever sacrificing warmth - The Guardian on The Last Wild trilogy
A whimsical yet thoughtful tale that brings to mind the smarts and silliness of Roald Dahl and Norton Juster - New York Post, on The Last Wild trilogy
An excellent, punchy adventure tale with vivid characters and an impassioned eco message - The Financial Times on The Last Wild trilogy
Piers Torday continues to demonstrate that he is one of the best writers for children working today - The Guardian, on There May Be a Castle
Piers Torday...is the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure. - The Times, on There May Be a Castle
Gripping, original and memorable -- Francesca Simon, on The Last Wild trilogy Thrilling, epic, wise. Truly a book for our times. (With extra rainbow unicorns!) -- Natasha Farrant, author of The Children of Castle Rock You'll be on the edge of your seat ... an original, and imaginative war cry for the importance of reading and the magic of libraries - M.G. Leonard
An entrancing story that champions imagination at a time when we most need it - Abi Elphinstone
Torday pays tribute to reading, libraries and imagination in one of the most clever and ambitious children's books you'll read this year - The Bookseller
Author
About Piers Torday
Piers Torday began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His bestselling first book for children, The Last Wild, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal as well as numerous other awards. His second book, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The third book in the trilogy, The Wild Beyond, was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. His next book for children, There May Be a Castle, was published in October 2016.
In regular demand as a speaker at schools and festivals, Piers is also a reading helper with Beanstalk, a former judge on the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a Patron of Reading at Heathmere School and a trustee of the Pleasance Theatre.
Born in Northumberland, Piers now lives in London with his husband and hopefully a cat.
Piers Torday writes...
I was born in Northumberland, which is possibly the one part of England where more animals live than people, and spent my early years crawling around on the floor of the popular children’s bookshop that my mother ran.
The first book I can remember reading is Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. “Stop thief!”
I was a total bookworm and read everything I could lay my hands on, from Beatrix Potter to Babar, Moomintrolls to Hobbits. Some of my favourite books included Stig Of The Dump, The Land of Green Ginger and The Silver Sword.
I also loved comic books, especially all of Tintin and Asterix. So I tried to write one.
When I was 8, I won a cartoon competition in the local paper with my entry “Super Sid”, a comic strip about a superhero called Sid. Unfortunately his main super power was being called Sid, and so he didn’t last long.
My first proper story was written age 13, which starts – ‘Sam was a dog. And like most dogs, he was a detective.’
This should have led to a promising career in canine detective fiction but at school and university I became completely distracted by theatre & comedy, which is where I then started my working life - at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, producing plays and sketch shows, and occasionally writing them too.
I am very proud to still be a Trustee of the Pleasance Theatre, which gave me my first ever job, and every year gives hundreds of new writers, performers, producers and technicians their first break.
After that, I accidentally came up with a successful gameshow called Come and Have A Go If You Think You’re Smart Enough and moved into television. I still work in TV, developing programme ideas and occasionally being allowed to make them – including Argumental and DSF: Olivia Lee (Series 1 &2).
But deep down the thing I most wanted to do was write stories like the ones I grew up on, and after my Dad wrote his first book at the age of 60 - Salmon Fishing In The Yemen - I felt inspired. So I went on a marvellous Arvon Course at Ted Hughes’ old house in West Yorkshire. They were very encouraging – and I began to write a book.
That book eventually became The Last Wild, and I am currently writing the next installment in the story.
In between, I have just been trained as a Volunteer Reader by VRH and can’t wait to start helping children in my local London schools to enjoy books and stories like I did when I was younger.
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