The Brockenspectre

A beautiful, touching and magical book from the author of Lob.

The narrative has a classic, fable-esque quality which is complimented by Pam Smy’s beautiful and atmospheric line drawings. Readers, young and old alike will take Tomas to their hearts and be eager to discover how his journey ends. The Brockenspectre is a small but perfectly formed hardback and will make a wonderful gift this Christmas season.

This is such a lovely story. It has the traditional feel of a fable but underlying it is Newbery's trademark honesty and compassion . . . As I write this review, we're in the run-up to Christmas and I can't think of a better choice for a gift for a child.

Tomas' Pappi is a mountain guide – strong, brave and fearless; just the sort of person Tomas wants to be. Tomas knows about the dangers of the mountains and he fears the Brockenspectre the most; a huge, shadowy creature that lives alone in the mountains, preying on unwary climbers. When Pappi goes out one day and fails to return, Tomas knows he must set out in search - so he conquers his fears... and fins himself deep in a mystery as well asfinding who the Brockenspectre is. A haunting and memorable story.

Just right for readers growing used to enjoying a novel on their own . . . A novel with psychological complexities and with this shift come expectations of literal credibility . . . There's much for a thoughtful reader to discover and enjoy - perhaps about knowing yourself, about parents and their fallibilities, about the dialogue you can share with a place. Four stars

As a child Linda Newbery was a secret writer, filling exercise books with stories which she hid in her wardrobe. Now she is a published author of over forty books, mainly children's and teenage fiction. She has been shortlisted for many prestigious literary prizes and has won the Costa children's book award. 
Linda lives in an Oxfordshire village and enjoys yoga, gardening, walking and the cinema.

Tomas wants to be like his father – strong, brave and fearless. Pappi is a mountain guide, often away from home. He has taught Tomas to love the mountains, but also to fear their dangers – the winds and blizzards, the treacherous paths, the giddying slopes. 
 
Above all, Tomas fears the Brockenspectre – a huge, shadowy creature that lives alone in the heights, waiting for unwary climbers. Its looming figure haunts his thoughts and his dreams. 
 
When Pappi goes out one day and fails to return, Tomas knows it’s up to him to search – up on the high mountain passes, where dangers await. 
 
Will Tomas find his father . . . or will the Brockenspectre find him?

Missing Rose

A powerful story of family intrigue, and the way a secret from the past can poison the future.

It was the day when everything stopped… 
 
 At quarter past two on a hot summer afternoon, Anna’s beautiful, headstrong older sister Rose disappears. And Anna was the last person to see her. 
 
 Their parents, Rose’s friends, the police – no-one can find where Rose has gone or who might have taken her. 
Twenty years later, Rose is still missing. Anna is the only one who still believes she might be alive, and unable to take control of her own life while her sister’s disappearance remains unsolved, she begins to hunt for the truth herself. But the search for Rose will uncover secrets she is not prepared for… 
 
 The compelling novel from the Costa Award-winning author. 
 
Originally published in hardback as Quarter Past Two on a Wednesday Afternoon

Set in Stone

A chilling novel set at the end of the nineteenth century, where love, possession, ambition and desire exist side by side . . .

I found myself bathing in the wonderful descriptions . . . Newbery writes with grace and immediacy

A gothic romance dealing with the most taboo subject of all . . . Newbery has created a climactic period story, compelling in its description and psychological drama . . . the relationship between art and life is starkly framed

Unfolds with horrific credibility and total suspense

This novel calls to mind the writings of the Bronte sisters . . . Despite or maybe because of the author seeming so unconcerned with current trends, this book works on every level. The plot is full of twists, the charcters are multi-dimensional, and the atmosphere of that grand Victorian house, with all its intrigue and hierarchy, is electric. Set in Stone is a gripping page-turner for children and adults alike

When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at Fourwinds, their majestic home, little does he expect to come across such a web of secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as chalk and cheese - the beautiful younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, controlled and sad. With their governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly the horrifying truth behind Juliana's sadness and Marianne's emotional fragility. Their discoveries change their perception of life at Fourwinds for ever and none of their lives will ever be the same again. 
 
With her usual brilliance and ease, Linda Newbery has written a haunting and faultlessly plotted novel with characters that leap of the page and stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Sisterland

Hilly's grandmother contracts Alzheimer's disease, and her family is turned upside down by revelations that emerge from her memories of life during the Second World War.

Any thoughtful teenager would enjoy Linda Newbery's Sisterland

A real page turner with some clever plot twists

Wonderful . . . You won't want to put it down

This is a powerful and evocative exploration of prejudice across the ages

This is a deftly written novel bringing together parallel stories exploring prejudice and its effects on the different generations

Ambitious and complex . . . Newbery explores with great sensitivity displacement, alienation, belonging and racism . . .

Following the success of The Shell House, Linda Newbery again demonstrates her brilliance at weaving thought-provoking subjects into a wholly satisfying and sensitively drawn novel. 
 
Hilly's German grandmother, HeidiGran, comes to live with her family after she gets Alzheimer's disease; but as her mind becomes more muddled, secrets from her memories of life during the Second World War start to emerge. 
 
Why does HeidiGran keep talking about a girl called Rachel? And why does she make racist remarks about Hilly's friend, Reuben? As Hilly struggles to cope with revelations about her family's past, she encounters racism and prejudice for herself when a friend becomes the victim of a mindless attack. She also falls in love for the first time. 
 
This is a wonderfully evocative novel exploring the recurring prejudices that affect every generation.

A beautiful and touching story filled with garden magic from a classic storyteller.

Newbery has stepped into timelessness with her short novel, ostensibly for middle-grade readers, entitled LOB (2010). It is a charming retelling of the Green Man legend, rich and playfully reinterpreted, which also has a contemporary thread

Oxford Companion to Children's Literature

An exquisite novel for the more sensitive seven to nine-year-olds

One of the most gifted writers around must surely be Linda Newbery and Lob, her latest novel for younger readers, is the kind of book that will inspire in children a deep love of nature and in adults a yearning for the wonderment of childhood

Linda Newbery tells her story beautifully, evoking empathy and emotion without ever straying into sentimentality

The mystical and beautiful fable is one of my favourite titles of this year

I found I was thinking about it long after I'd turned the final page, because it's wonderful . . . It's a wonderful story of trusting and believing in the unknown and keeping a legacy alive. You'll remember to look for Lob whenever you hear a rustling of leaves behind you

There is something intensely comforting about this book that I'm sure parents will enjoy as well as children. Especially if they are gardeners!

Newbery holds the reader with her endearing characters, evocative scene-setting and poetic language . . . An uplifting, enchanting book

There's something timeless about this lovely story, not only in its theme, which links us back to generations past, but also in the telling of it: elegant, sedate, beautifully crafted, filled with a warm kind of hope and old-fashioned charm

Lob will sneak under the skin of cynical early teens

A tale told as much by Pam Smy's black and white line drawings as by Newbery's quiet, bright, clear prose. The book belongs in that English tradition of writing for children in which relationships, time and nature are explored through gardens

Very young gardeners will love Lob, by Linda Newbery, the story of Lucy, Grandpa Will and the mysterious green man who lives in his garden

[Linda's] eponymous Lob, made of rain and wind, of time gone and time waiting, embodies regeneration

Laced with poems, and beautifully illustrated, this is a magical story of believing in the unknown

He's older than anyone can tell. Older than the trees. Older than anybody. 
 
For as long as she can remember, Lucy has wanted to catch a glimpse of the mysterious green man who lives in Grandpa Will's garden: Lob. 
 
You have to be very special to see him; that's what Grandpa says. Lucy's parents think Lob's just imaginary, but Lucy knows he exists. And she can't believe it when she finally spots Lob in the gooseberry bushes. 
 
But Lucy's world is about to be shattered by a terrible event. What will happen to Lob now - and will she ever see him again? 
 
Linda Newbery, with the vivid embroidery of Pam Smy's illustrations, has conjured a real green man right out of the woods and stories of legend.

Flightsend

The story of a summer of startling self discovery from talented, award-winning author Linda Newbery

Flightsend is Charlie's new home, whether she likes it or not. Her mother sees it as an end to all that's gone so tragically wrong, but for Charlie it's the end of her family, not to mention her social life. 
 
They had been a proper family. Mum, Sean and Charlie, with a new baby sister on the way. But the baby died before she was born and everything changed. Gradually, her mother pushed Sean away, before resigning from her job and selling the house, forcing Sean to find somewhere else to live. 
 
Although Charlie believes her mother is making a terrible mistake, she can only offer support - but who will support Charlie, with Sean cut out of their lives? She's certain that the move to a ramshackle cottage, miles from anywhere, can only make things worse. 
 
She couldn't be more wrong. This first summer at Flightsend proves to be a turning point for them both. For Charlie's mum there's a new business and the fresh start that she knew she needed. And for Charlie there's a new job, new friends, a newly discovered talent for art and new feelings for two very different men. It's a summer of beginnings, not ends; a summer that Charlie will never forget.

Linda Newbery

This novel calls to mind the writings of the Bronte sisters... despite or maybe because of the author seeming so unconcerned with current trends, this book works on every level. The plot is full of twists, the charcters are multi-dimensional, and the atmosphere of that grand Victorian house, with all its intrigue and hierarchy, is electric. Set in Stone is a gripping page-turner for children and adults alike

An absorbing, thoughtful, jigsaw puzzle of a book... if its atmosphere is that of a Victorian mystery, the setting combines the richly imagined detail of a George Eliot novel with the grace and light of a Vuillard painting

The protagonists' unreliable narratives keep readers on the edge of their seats as the shocking nature of their secret is gradually, teasingly revealed in this lyrical novel

Linda Newberry has very successfully recreated the nineteenth century voice reminiscent of the Bronte's and Austen, and the element of mystery to be solved evokes the style of Wilkie Collins. The particular strength of this novel is the way in which the characters are drawn, each with their own story that leads the reader through the quagmire that is the Farrow family saga

Exactly captures genteel Victorian diction and the seething lust, shame and cruelty beneath

Full of intrigue and deception ......Newbery writes with grace and immediacy

With its dark subject matter and the 19th-century setting, Set In Stone has all the ingredients of a Victorian Gothic novel.

When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at their majestic home, little does he expect to come across such a web of secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as chalk and cheese - the beautiful younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, oddly sensible and controlled. Assisted by their elusive governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly why Marianne is so emotionally fragile. But his discoveries lead to revenge and betrayal - and lives all around are turned upside down as life and death combat each other for supremacy. 
 
Linda Newbery has written a novel in diary style, combining different voices and a different century with her usual brilliance and ease. These are characters full of the same passions as our own today, while living in a less familiar and fascinating time.

Linda Newbery

Praise for Set In Stone

This novel calls to mind the writings of the Bronte sisters... despite or maybe because of the author seeming so unconcerned with current trends, this book works on every level. The plot is full of twists, the charc ...

An absorbing, thoughtful, jigsaw puzzle of a book... if its atmosphere is that of a Victorian mystery, the setting combines the richly imagined detail of a George Eliot novel with the grace and light of a Vuillard p ...

The protagonists' unreliable narratives keep readers on the edge of their seats as the shocking nature of their secret is gradually, teasingly revealed in this lyrical novel

This novel calls to mind the writings of the Bronte sisters... despite or maybe because of the author seeming so unconcerned with current trends, this book works on every level. The plot is full of twists, the charc ...

An absorbing, thoughtful, jigsaw puzzle of a book... if its atmosphere is that of a Victorian mystery, the setting combines the richly imagined detail of a George Eliot novel with the grace and light of a Vuillard p ...

The protagonists' unreliable narratives keep readers on the edge of their seats as the shocking nature of their secret is gradually, teasingly revealed in this lyrical novel

This novel calls to mind the writings of the Bronte sisters... despite or maybe because of the author seeming so unconcerned with current trends, this book works on every level. The plot is full of twists, the charc ...

An absorbing, thoughtful, jigsaw puzzle of a book... if its atmosphere is that of a Victorian mystery, the setting combines the richly imagined detail of a George Eliot novel with the grace and light of a Vuillard p ...

The protagonists' unreliable narratives keep readers on the edge of their seats as the shocking nature of their secret is gradually, teasingly revealed in this lyrical novel

Books by Linda Newbery

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