Showing results by author "Eva Ibbotson" in All Categories

Tally Hamilton is furious to hear she is being sent from London to a horrid, stuffy boarding school in the countryside. And all because of the stupid war. But Delderton Hall is a far more interesting place than Tally ever imagined, and an exciting school trip to the beautiful and luscious kingdom of Bergania whisks Tally into an unexpected adventure . . . Will she be able to save her new friend, Prince Karil, from terrible danger before it's too late?

Beyond the everyday world of King's Cross Station lies an island of oddities and magic. When their infant Prince is stolen, the island's magical residents form a team to rescue him. The only trouble is, they can't get to him for nine years.

Hal's parents refuse to consider a dog. Then they discover Easy Pets, a dog-rental agency. Terrier Fleck arrives on Hal's birthday, but when Hal discovers that his dog must be returned, he runs away. A large reward is offered for the missing boy, and soon they are being chased across the country. Helped by a travelling circus and sympathetic children from an orphanage, they race for their freedom.

Rupert, the young Earl of Westerholme, returns home from the war - and Anna, a housemaid, falls hopelessly in love with him. But they can never be together - Rupert is engaged to the snobbish and awful Muriel. And anyway, Anna is only a servant. Or so everybody thinks.

Under Platform 13 at Kings Cross Station there is a secret door that leads to a magical island. It appears only once every nine years. And when it opens, four mysterious figures step into the streets of London. A wizard, an ogre, a fey, and a young hag have come to find the prince of their kingdom, stolen as a baby nine years before.

Fredegonda, Goneril, and Drusilla are Great Hagges, much more important and much rarer than regular old hags. They think that ghosts these days are decidedly lacking—people haven't been scared of ghosts for years. So one day they decide that something needs to change—it's time for these ghosts to learn a thing or two about being scary. And what better way to teach them than to set up their very own school for ghosts?

It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at 13, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey. Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in this highly colourful, joyous, and award-winning adventure.

In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid. They take her home, and Annika grows up in the servants' quarters of a house belonging to three eccentric Viennese professors. She is happy there but dreams of the day when her real mother will come to find her. One day a glamorous stranger arrives at the door.

Maia, an orphan, can't wait to reach her distant relatives a thousand miles up the Amazon. She imagines a loving family with whom she will share great adventures. Instead she finds two spiteful cousins who see the jungle as the enemy and refuse to go outdoors.

Arriman the Awful, Wizard of the North, is tired of being the most evil wizard in the world so he decides he must get married and have a son to take over. His wife must be a witch with awesome powers but the organised contest has awful consequences.

Anna, a young countess, has lived in the glittering city of St Petersburg all her life in an ice-blue palace overlooking the River Neva. But when revolution tears Russia apart, her now-penniless family is forced to flee to England. Armed with an out-of-date book on housekeeping, Anna determines to become a housemaid and she finds work at the Earl of Westerholme's crumbling but magnificent mansion.

Deep in the Himalayas, the daughter of an English earl is kidnapped by a huge hairy monster. Agatha Farlingham is introduced to a family of motherless yetis and devotes her life to their upbringing. She teaches them to talk, tells them stories and insists on polite manners. But as time passes, tourists and yeti-hunters arrive in to the mountains. Agatha knows that there is one place where they would be protected - at her home in England. So begins a hugely entertaining road trip half way across the world...

Ruth lives in Vienna and is wildly in love with Heini Radik, a brilliant young pianist. When Hitler’s forces invade, Ruth’s family flees to London, but she cannot get a passport. Quin, a young professor and friend of the family, visits Ruth and offers a marriage of convenience. On their return to London, Quin begins to fall desperately in love with her. But then Heini turns up.…

When Ellen Carr abandons grey, dreary London to become housekeeper at an experimental school in Austria, she soon knows she's found her calling. Swept into an idyllic world of mountains, music, eccentric teachers and wayward children, Ellen brings order and joy to all around her. But it's the handsome, mysterious gardener, Marek, who intrigues her - Marek, who has a dangerous secret. As Hitler's troops march across Europe, Ellen finds she has promises to keep, even if it means sacrificing her future happiness.

Heckie is not just a witch. She's a good witch who wants to make the world a better place. So, with her Toe of Transformation and her Knuckle of Power she turns unpleasant people into animals. But to her surprise, Basil's parents want their son back.

"Find me a witch!" cries Arriman the Awful, feared Wizard of the North. Arriman has decided to marry. His wife must be a witch of the darkest powers - but which witch will she be? To find the most fiendish, he holds a spell-casting competition.

As a bloodcurlingly fearsome ghost, Humphrey the Horrible is a failure. He's not horrible at all. Instead of being ghastly and skeletal, he's pink and fluffy, like a summer cloud. Poor Humphrey can't scare anyone. But when the ghosts are in danger, it's clever Humphrey who comes up with a rescue plan.

Three children have been kidnapped by some mysterious, mad aunts and panic is spreading. But Myrtle, Coral and Etta are far from killers - they need the children to help them in a very caring mission. The secret island where they live is a sanctuary for strange and wonderful creatures - mermaids, selkies, the amazing boobrie bird, and even the great Kraken himself.

When a Hag, an orphan boy, and a troll called Ulf get sent to rescue a princess from an ogre, they expect it to be a fairly standard magical mission. But the ogre is depressed, the princess doesn’t want to be rescued – and the ogre’s dead wife is turning in her grave. The Norns who rule their fates decide to take things in hand – will the Ogre meet a bloody end, or will he get a happy ending?

Spring, 1922. Tessa is a beautiful, tiny, dark-eyed princess who’s given up her duties to follow her heart and work backstage at the Viennese opera. She keeps her true identity a well-guarded secret, but when a wealthy, handsome Englishman discovers this bewitching urchin backstage, Tessa’s two lives collide - and in escaping her inheritance, she finds her destiny....