Wundersmith

JESSICA TOWNSEND sometimes lives in London, and sometimes on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, where she grew up. She was previously a copywriter and the editor of a children's wildlife magazine for Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Her pet fascinations include public transport and secret societies, ancient cities and underground places, hotels and museums, Halloween and Christmas, old maps and giant cats - all of which have weaselled their way into her books. She is the author of the Nevermoor series and won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize Younger Fiction Category with her debut novel: Nevemoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow.

Townsend's intensely cinematic writing, quirky humour and superior world-building conjure a genuinely fresh take on magical fantasy * Fiona Noble - The Bookseller * Endlessly inventive, with a fresh delight on every page, Nevermoor rewrites the genre of the Chosen Child novel. This is a special book. * David Solomons, author of MY BROTHER IS A SUPERHERO * An extraordinary story full of magics great and small, from the Hotel Deucalion to the Magnificat . . . Townsend has created a book of wunders. In Morrigan Crow I've found a heroine I'm willing to step boldly after, and follow her wherever her adventure takes her next * Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of THE GIRL OF INK AND STARS * Praise for NEVERMOOR: THE TRIALS OF MORRIGAN CROW:Exciting, mysterious, marvellous and magical . . . quite simply one of the best children's books I've read in years * Robin Stevens, author of Murder Most Unladylike *