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The Lost Magician
On sale
5th March 2020
Price: £19.99
‘If you can imagine it, it exists … somewhere.’ A spellbinding 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.
Praise for Piers Torday:
‘The new master of books for children‘ – The Times
(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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.
Praise for Piers Torday:
‘The new master of books for children‘ – The Times
(P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Reviews
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?
Piers Torday continues to demonstrate that he is one of the best writers for children working today
Gripping, original and memorable
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.
A phenomenal adventure story
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.
An entrancing story that champions imagination at a time when we most need it
a wonderful tribute to Narnia, CS Lewis and the magic of books and reading
Thrilling, epic, wise. Truly a book for our times. (With extra rainbow unicorns!)
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 first of a trilogy, this is masterly storytelling, both entertaining and profound.
An excellent, punchy adventure tale with vivid characters and an impassioned eco message
Piers Torday...is the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure.
a lustrously lovely ode to libraries, to imagination, and to the magic of a wonderful story
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
A whimsical yet thoughtful tale that brings to mind the smarts and silliness of Roald Dahl and Norton Juster
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
Piers Torday's The Lost Magician (Quer-cus, £12.99, 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.
Wildly inventive, moving and gripping ... full of suspense without ever sacrificing warmth