Set against the backdrop of gathering war, A Song for Summer is an unforgettable love story from master storyteller Eva Ibbotson.
When Ellen Carr abandons grey, dreary London to become housekeeper at an experimental school in Austria, she soon knows she's found her calling. Swept into an idyllic world of mountains, music, eccentric teachers and wayward children, Ellen brings order and joy to all around her. But it's the handsome, mysterious gardener, Marek, who intrigues her - Marek, who has a dangerous secret. As Hitler's troops march across Europe, Ellen finds she has promises to keep, even if it means sacrificing her future happiness...
Fulton Snodde-Brittles has gone to the Dial A Ghost agency with an evil plan. He wants to hire some truly terrifying ghosts to scare his nephew Oliver to death. 'The Shriekers' are the most violent and sickening sceptres the agency has, but a mix-up means the kind Wilkinson ghosts are sent in their place. Now Oliver has some spooky allies to help him outwit the wicked Fulton!
Arriman has decided to marry. His wife must be a witch of the darkest powers... To find the most fiendish, he holds a spell-casting competition. Glamorous Olympia performs the Symphony of Death and conjures up a thousand plague-bearing rats. The magic of gentle Belladonna, the white witch, goes hopelessly wrong. She produces perfumed flowers instead of snakes. Bats roost in her hair instead of becoming blood-sucking vampires. Belladonna longs to be an evil enchantress - but how?
'I will buy your castle,' declared Hiram C. Hopgood. 'But only if there are no ghosts!' Alex MacBuff can't afford to keep his beloved Castle Carra - and an American millionaire has made him an offer he can't refuse. But the castle is full of ghosts! There's Krok the hairy Viking warrior, mad Miss Spinks, a hell-hound called Cyril, and a vampire with no teeth. How can Alex stop them haunting Hiram?
Under Platform 13 at Kings Cross Station there is a secret door... It appears only once every nine years. When it opens, four mysterious figures step into the streets of London. A wizard, an ogre, a fey and a young hag have come to find the prince of their kingdom, stolen as a baby nine years before. But the prince has become a horrible rich boy called Raymond Trottle who is determined not to be rescued.
Three children have been kidnapped by some mad aunts and panic is spreading. But Myrtle, Coral and Etta are far from killers - they need the children to help them in a caring mission. The secret island where they live is a sanctuary for wonderful creatures - mermaids, selkies, the boobrie bird, and even the Kraken. The kidnapped children love their magical life - but the Island of Monsters has become the target of some dangerous villians...
'So your spell changed Basil into a bulldog?' gasped Daniel. 'Yes,' said Heckie. 'I adore bulldogs.' Heckie is a good witch who wants to make the world a better place. So, with her Toe of Transformation and her Knuckle of Power she turns unpleasant people into animals. But to her surprise, Basil's parents want their son back...
Instead of being ghastly and skeletal as a bloodcurlingly fearsome ghost, he's pink and fluffy, like a summer cloud. He longs to be like his brother, who's a Screaming Skull. Or his father, who has stumps for legs and a sword through his chest. Or even his cousins who are vampire bats. Poor Humphrey, though, can't scare anyone. But when the ghosts are in danger, it's clever Humphrey who comes up with a rescue plan...
Fredegonda, Goneril, and Drusilla are Great Hagges, much more important and much rarer than regular old hags. They think that ghosts these days are decidedly lacking - people haven't been scared of ghosts for years. So one day they decide that something needs to change - it's time for these ghosts to learn a thing or two about being scary. And what better way to teach them than to set up their very own school for ghosts?
It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at 13, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey. Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in this highly colourful, joyous and award-winning adventure.
Renowned literary great Eva Ibbotson delivers a final novel in her classic, much-loved style. A previously unpublished work from this favorite author, The Abominables follows a family of yetis who are forced, by tourism, to leave their home in the Himalayas and make their way across Europe to a possible new home. Siblings Con and Ellen shepherd the yetis along their eventful journey, with the help of Perry, a good-natured truck driver. Through a mountain rescue in the Alps and a bullfight in Spain, the yetis at last find their way to an ancestral estate in England-only to come upon a club of voracious hunters who have set their sights on the most exotic prey of all: the Abominable Snowmen.
Briskly funny and full of incident, The Abominables is vintage Ibbotson. With unforgettable characters and thoughtful messages about the environment and advocacy, it' s a generous last gift to her many devoted fans.
Susanna Weber is the best dress maker in Imperial Vienna. Through skill and hard work, she now owns her own dress shop, looking out over the beautiful Madensky Square. To do so, she has left her past behind, if not without regret, at least resolutely. Looking around her, at her customers and friends, Susanna is aware that she has more than most - but a few small changes cause her to realize just how precarious her situation is.
