Rachael Smith – illustratör

Elizabethan England is a time of superstition and strange goings on. If you have a problem, it's common to go to a witch for help. And Queen Elizabeth I is no different... When Daisy -- a precocious young witch -- learns of the death of the Queen's Royal Witch, she flies to London to audition as her replacement. But Daisy is from a poor family, and they don't let just anyone into the Royal Court. The only way into the palace is to take a job as a cleaner. As Daisy cleans the palace, she draws the attention of Elizabeth's doctor (and arch-heretic) John Dee, who places her into the auditions -- much to the chagrin of her more well-to-do competitors. But Dee knows how dangerous the corridors of power have become, with dark forces manipulating events for their own ends. To him, Daisy represents a wild card -- one that may decide the fate of many. With so many wanting her to fail, Daisy will need all her grit and determination to make it through these auditions -- not to mention a sense of daring and adventure...

Dickson is the critically-acclaimed author of A New Jerusalem (New Internationalist, 2018)

Cursed! Elizabethan England was a time of superstition and strange goings on. If you had a problem, it was common to go to a witch for help. And Queen Elizabeth I is no different. Daisy, Queen Elizabeth's Royal Witch, has protected the monarch against evil for two years, and is now very good at her job. When Daisy goes home to attend the wedding of her childhood friend Jerome, she struggles with the ways her friend and hometown have changed. Unfortunately things quickly go from bad to worse when an incident of dark magic leads to Daisy and her mother being put on trial for malevolent witchcraft. The penalty is death! But who really caused the incident... and why? Daisy's loyal friends - Simon the bodyguard, Edith the maid, Nathaniel the rat and the ghost of Thomas Cromwell - must get to the bottom of these mysteries, before it's too late!