Five episodes about the magic adventures of the royal family in Wychwood Castle.

After losing her job and her partner in one fell swoop, journalist Elspeth Reeves is back in her mother’s house in the sleepy village of Wilsby-under-Wychwood, wondering where it all went wrong. Then a body is found in the neighbouring Wychwoods: a woman ritually slaughtered, with cryptic symbols scattered around her corpse. Elspeth recognizes these from a local myth of the Carrion King, a Saxon magician who once held a malevolent court deep in the forest. As more murders follow, Elspeth joins her childhood friend DS Peter Shaw to investigate, and the two discover sinister village secrets harking back decades.

Born in Seattle, graduated from Reed College. Twelve books published 1954-71 by top publishers. Brilliant reviews on all: even by London Times! Co-authored Listen and Learn with Phonics. Lived in England 64 to 87, busy with writing, British Mensa, cats, judo (3rd Dan Black Belt) and gardens. Returned to America, living now in Santa Rosa. In 02, Image Cascade republished 7 of my fi rst titles. New titles, Ivory Cat, Missing Queen, Haunted Schoolhouse, The Outrageous Oriel, Loyal and the Dragon, Castle Adamant, Delicate Pioneer, The Wayward Princess, and The Angry Earth. Ailurophile, meaning cat-lover, comes from the Greek ailuros, meaning tail-waver. (Just picture it! The fi rst-ever cat enters Greece, gently waving a friendly tail aloft. Every fi nger points excitedly. Oh, look! Ailuros!) This is the tale of an ailurophile and her collection of cats and friends in England and America, told partly in letters. Shy kindly Fred and the English catteries. Soul-mate Jenny with her pure-bred Siamese Black Paw Gang who cleaned up at cat shows all over Europe. Sallys cats would have died fi rst. She joined a cat rescue group and collected an assortment of her own, called the Cataclysm. Their letters describe champions and moggies, local doings and loco cats, contretemps, calicoes and cat shows, all with style, observation, and wit.

Cousins Sophie and Wil certainly have their hands full. Wil’s old friend Mr. Bertram is blamed for the disappearance of a priceless manuscript and lands in jail, things are up in the air at Auntie Vi’s Fortune-Telling with a new competitor next door, Sophie and Wil have exams to study for, Aunt Rue doesn’t get the new job at the Secretariat after all, and their neighbour, Mrs. Oleander, falls deathly ill. But that’s not the half of it. When they travel with their eccentric fortune-telling aunt on a prize trip to Iceland sponsored by Perfect Products (purveyors of Aunt Violet’s beloved crystal ball), Wil and Sophie face danger and magic – galdur. They are even – not to give away too much – captured by trolls and almost end up in the soup du jour! Meanwhile, the Serpent’s Chain, an ancient secret society, will stop at nothing to reclaim Wil’s magical black medallion. Despite the danger to their own lives, Sophie and Wil struggle valiantly to learn more about the Chain, whose web of deceit, they discover, extends all the way to Iceland. In short – what a mess!

Not all fairies live at the bottom of the garden - as Harriet Everdene is about to find out. Outlandish adventurer Harriet has been hired by the illustrious Fairy Aerodynamic Exploration Society to track down the elusive Wychwood fairies. No one, so far, has been able to find them. Will Harriet & her faithful pet dragon Eric be up to the job?