A magical, twisty-turny not-quite-fairytale, brimming with adventure, humour and charm.

Lyn Gardner was born in London. A theatre critic on The Guardian, she goes to the theatre five or six nights a week, which should leave no time for writing books at all. Prior to joining The Guardian she was a tea lady, a waitress, sold (or failed to sell) advertising space for a magazine called Sludge, wrote for The Independent and helped found the London listings magazine, City Limits, the largest publishing co-op in Europe. She and her two daughters have one venerable goldfish (there were two, but one came to a tragic end) and a horse-who is the most demanding, temperamental and expensive member of the family.