Smiler Trilogy – serie

One is a 15-year-old boy, Samuel Miles, a.k.a. ‘Smiler’, wrongly convicted of theft and sent to a young offenders institution. The other is a cheetah, Yarra, a restless resident of Longleat Wildlife Park.Both are in danger from the outside world – and each other – but somehow their lives become inextricably bound up as they fight for survival on the edge of Salisbury Plain.A fast-moving and compassionate adventure story, The Runaways is the first book in Victor Canning's classic children's trilogy.

Fifteen-year-old Smiler is still on the run.Smiler is aiming to evade the police until his father, a ship’s cook, comes home to clear him of a crime he hasn't committed. Hitching a train to Scotland, he finds work as an animal caretaker within the grounds of a castle occupied by ‘the Laird’, Sir Alec Elphinstone.When the Laird leaves on a trip to London, Smiler discovers that thieves are planning to invade his employer's castle.Dare he go to the police for help?