Gideon the Cutpurse

Linda Buckley-Archer was born in Sussex but spent most of her childhood in rural Staffordshire. She studied French literature and was a college lecturer for several years. She has tried her hand at all sorts of writing but loves writing for children, in particular. She now lives in South West London with her husband and two children.

GIDEON THE CUTPURSE (HARDBACK) REVIEWS IN THE UK AND US UK Reviews Publishing News - 3rd March 2006 June Titles * STARRED CHOICE Gideon the Cutpurse Linda Buckley-Archer Simon & Schuster GBP12.99 1416916555 A thrilling new time-travel adventure. An encounter with an anti-gravity machine catapults Peter and Kate back to the 18th century and a world of highwaymen, thieves and cutpurses. Publishing News - 3rd March 2006 June Titles BOOKSELLERS CHOICE Gillian Macdonald, Ottakars, Edinburgh Gideon the Cutpurse Linda Buckley-Archer Simon & Schuster GBP12.99 1416916555 This is the first in a series of dramatic time-travel adventures featuring unlikely companions Peter and Kate - twenty-first century children who have only just met when they are inexplicably spirited away to the 18th century - and Gideon, an eighteenth-century 'gentleman". There is much to recommend in this book. There is a really strong sense of place in both centuries. The 18th century is vividly and lovingly brought to life, and the events happening in the present are not neglected either. There are many excellent characters (among them a truly repellent villain called The Tar Man), a swift pace and an absorbing plot. It's convincing and exciting and I loved it. Age 10+ The Bookseller BOOKSELLERS' CHOICE Gideon the Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer is a thrilling tale of dashing highwaymen and sinister villains. A freak incident involving an anti-gravity invention catapults two teenagers into the middle of the 18th century. The hideous Tarman steals the machine, and Peter and Kate have to face a series of enemies to get home. Full of flavour and witty flourishes, this should be a huge summer favourite. 17 March 2006 The Bookseller - Product Preview Linda Buckley-Archer Gideon the Cutpurse Simon & Schuster, 5th June, GBP12.99, 1416916555 Two modern-day children are catapulted back to 1763 by an anti-gravity machine and become stranded when the machine is stolen by a vicious criminal. Fortunately Gideon, a gentlemanly reformed cutpurse, is there to help them. This eventful time travel fantasy marks the first in a series, and the dramatic ending certainly begs for a sequel. 17 March 2006 The Sunday Times 4th June 2006 Children's book of the week REVIEWED BY NICOLETTE JONES GIDEON THE CUTPURSE by Linda Buckley-Archer Age 9+ Peter's last words to his father - who characteristically lets him down by cancelling a birthday treat because he has a business meeting - are, "I hate you." Later that day, an accidental encounter with an anti-gravity machine transports Peter and his new friend Kate to 1763. There Peter finds a more satisfactory father figure in Gideon, a reformed thief who becomes his defender. As the children and Gideon pursue the stolen machine that might send them back to their own time, they are captured by highwaymen, meet Dr Johnson and Boswell, attend a (thwarted) hanging, and visit both a stately home and Newgate prison. Meanwhile their parents - including Peter's mother, called home from a Los Angeles film set - are involved in a police hunt for the missing children and learn a lesson about priorities. Stimulating about the relative merits of then and now, and so convincing a picture of the 18th century that we feel transported ourselves, this first book of a planned trilogy of time-travel adventures is skilled, engrossing and irresistible. The reader, like the protagonists, will find it hard to return to the present. (Simon & Schuster GBP12.99) Funday Times (The SundayTimes On-line) Book of the Week 11th June 2006 Linda Buckley-Archer Gideon the Cutpurse Simon & Schuster, 5th June, GBP12.99, Linda Buckley-Archer's debut novel is a thrilling time-slip story. Peter and Kate travel back to 18th-century US Reviews School Library Journal GIDEON THE CUTPURSE By Linda Buckley-Archer (S&SBFYR; ISBN: 1416915257; July 2006; Summer catalog page 24-25) * STARRED CHOICE "Peter and Kate, 12, have literally stumbled from the 21st century back to 1763, and even though they are still in England, many things have changed. Their time travel must be connected to the antigravity machine Kate's father has been working on, but since it has been stolen by a vicious criminal called The Tar Man, they really have no choice but to trust Gideon, the stranger whose offer of help seems genuine enough, even if he is known as a cutpurse. Buckley-Archer may very well give J. K. Rowling a run for her money. This wonderfully rich and complex novel, written in lyrical and vivid language, is destined to be a classic. History interweaves with science, social issues in both centuries are thrown in; yet what readers will remember most is a fast-paced plot with a cliff-hanger ending and multidimensional characters who continue to inhabit their thoughts long after the book is closed. With appeal for reluctant and advanced readers, this novel is a rare gem." June 19 2006 Kirkus Reviews A breathlessly paced adventure takes two modern kids back in time to England, 1763, where they must cope with such varied difficulties as 18th-century clothing and a host of implacable evildoers. When Peter and Kate, thrown together by chance, pop out of thin air in 1763 along with the anti-gravity machine that brought them there, they are lucky to do so in front of Gideon. Less luckily, the anti-gravity machine is immediately stolen by the Tar Man, king of London's cutthroats, and Gideon's erstwhile colleague. Readers may feel let down when they meet the title character, who, far from being the promised villain, has reformed his wicked ways and vows to help Peter and Kate get home. Buckley-Archer spins a rip-roaring tale replete with the raw details of life in the 18th century, including those of highwaymen, chamber pots and ghastly food like tripe. While the kids' adjustment to their new time, if reluctant, is well-nigh miraculous in its ease, the story compensates with nonstop action, appealing secondary characters and healthy dollops of humor, all of which will have readers panting for the sequel. (Fiction. 10-14)First printing of 200,000 June 2006 Kirkus Reviews Special - Spotlight on Fiction - 35 Hot Debuts Linda Buckley-Archer drew inspiration from a fascinating period in British history for her debut novel, Gideon the Cutpurse, the first in a planned trilogy. "I remember listening to a historian describe the wonderful array of criminals prevalent in 18th-century London," she says. "She talked about highwaymen, of course, and cutpurses, but also footpads, anglers, moon-cursers, plumpers and link-boys. The language alone aroused my curiosity," says the author. "Above all, though, I was struck by the idea that even the types of crime committed then could bring to life this fascinating century in a very direct and vivid way." Apt words: The setting leaps off the pages, and the narrative is imbued with energetic dialogue and a convincing time-travel premise. "All of my fiction about time travel is based on current scientific speculation on how one might create a time machine, plus some extrapolation concerning the properties of dark energy," says the author. "I even have a diagram of an anti-gravity machine in my file!" While working on the story, she sought approval from a representative sample of her audience: her children. "The amount of fidgeting and the expressions on their faces taught me more than any creative writing handbook ever did," she says. "Gasps are rare, but if you get one, you know that you're onto something good!" VOYA June 2006, p.156. Buckley-Archer, Linda. Gideon the Cutpurse. Simon & Schuster, 2006. 400p. $17.95. 1-4169-1525-7. Twenty-first-century twelve-year-olds, Peter and Kate, are flung from their middle-class lives into 1763, landing hard on the same Derbyshire ground as that from which they were accidentally launched by a NASA-funded anti-gravity machine. Confused, near panic, and ignorant of the fact that their arrival has been witnessed by the ne'er-do-well Tar Man, they stumble around until falling asleep, finding themselves the next day in the protective care of Gideon, a character resembling a younger version of Eleanor Updale's Montmorency of Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman (Scholastic, 2003/VOYA June 2004). Buckley-Archer's tale spinning, however, is not derivative of either Updale or the time traveling in Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza series, although readers of those series will love this book. The England of 1763 is fully fleshed-and odiferous-while parents, investigating police, and NASA scientists back in the future (after all, Peter and Kate have apparently disappeared) are emotional and distrusting of any alliance they should form. Gideon takes the children to his new employer, a gentlewoman with her own children and troubles, and the bulk of the tale involves a long and dangerous eighteenth-century road trip that Peter, Kate, Gideon, a sanctimonious parson, and a few others make from Derbyshire to London. Historical detail here is both excellent and engagingly intertwined with what would be adventure in any era: highwaymen, royalty, prison, and a corrupt judiciary. As the first in The Gideon Trilogy, this tale ends on just the right note of suspense-if you're not Peter, who finds himself still suspended in the long-gone past.-Francisca Goldsmith. USA Today 5/25/2006 Critic's picks: Something for everyone And don't miss: Gideon the Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer (Simon and Schuster, $17.95, June 27). First in series about 21st-century kids whose anti-gravity machine lands in 18th-century London (ages 9 to 12).<