Himalayan Hostages
I loved your book
Tara aged 10
Himalayan Heist
This is an adventure story for adults and young adults. It is a breathlessly exciting page-turner, in the long tradition of quest stories.
The complex and shifting relationships of the three main protagonists – Alex and James, and their engaging girl companion Bim – are put to the test as they work their way through the beautiful and dangerous Nepalese landscape. They know what they have to do, but not what they will be required to face. Perils confront them at every turn, some natural, others man-made. The Nepalese landscape – presented in vivid and almost tactile clarity – can be beautiful, but also menacing.
In many adventure stories the characters are the main interest and the setting is little more than a lifeless backcloth; or the landscape is the writer’s real subject and the protagonists are anaemic stereotypes whose only purpose is to move the story forward. But here the characterisation is enmeshed within the action and the setting. Without noticing, readers find themselves caring about the characters, anxious when they are separated, comforted when they are reunited.
The author is a traveller. She writes about places and people she knows well, so there is an integrity in her writing and a total authenticity in the heft and feel of the story. So her accounts of the wildlife, the valleys and mountains and rivers, and the people the three main characters come across, have truth in them.
Victor Watson, editor of The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English
Madagascar Misadventure
I love the setting of this story – it’s so sumptuously told. The sights, smells and sounds are vivid and evocative, it completely took me away while I was reading it.
Emily Talbot
Himalayan Hideout
This is another romping himalayan adventure. This time the boys end up in the high himalayas where they meet some beautiful wildlife, but also encounter a family of bears and even a snow leopard and many other rare beasts as they wander, lost, amongst the crags and deep into terrorist territory.
The Reading Agency