The team
Ruth Harrison
Angela Hicken
Madelaine - the book thief
Penny- Rose Ratcliffe
Rachel the editor- Jane the Archivist
Cordelia Gray- Friday Next
- Jacky Percival
Other teams
Magical writing for children Find!
Judith Heneghan wrote her first book The Magician's Apprentice as her dissertation piece for the MA Writing for Children run at the University of Winchester. Later renamed Stonecipher this adventure story has in it everything I loved in stories as a child; magic, adventure, an artful dodger like central character, and best of all, a map that you can follow the action on at the front of the book!
A review in Publishers' Weekly read 'With this cleverly plotted first novel about thievery and murder, Heneghan quickly draws readers into the grimy, hardscrabble world of urban 19th-century England, when the 'air was thick with the pungent stink of sweat and country cheese.' The sympathetic protagonist, Jago, an orphaned street magician, is a penniless beggar and a reluctant thief, shrugging off his wrongdoing as means to an end. Able to think quickly on his feet and melt into any crowd, Jago uncovers a sinister plot by some greedy fortune hunters, then vows to stop them. He saves the day (and himself) during a dramatic climax aboard a storm-battered ship. Heneghan drops in one plot twist after another, and readers must determine what is real and what is illusion. The strongly delineated conflicts, the dramatic cast and the playful suspense should win Heneghan an audience. Ages 8 -- 12'.
This would be an excellent book for a junior reading group to read.
Heneghan now writes an occasional column for the Hampshire Chronicle.
A number of other books have resulted from the Writing for Children course at the University, though none are so firmly set in Winchester as Heneghan's adventure.
30 September 2009 from Madelaine - the book thief
Finds
- A Daughter of Winchester
- And here is one we missed
- And, finally, one for Hallowe'en
- How did we miss this one?
- John Wyndham's Hampshire connection
- Reading the countryside
- New Milton's new Milton
- Heywood Sumner in South Gorley
- PG Wodehouse in Emsworth
- Walking In My Sleep
- Nicola Slade's Victorian Mysteries
- England's Lost Eden
- June Tate
- Bullington
- Speed The Plough: A Country Song
- A Hampshire scarecrow: Worzel Gummidge
- Queens Arms
- Haslar Hospital Memories
- Magical writing for children
- Inspired by the Tichborne Claimant
- Gypsy Girl Trilogy
- Rev. Gilbert White (1720-1793) and The Natural History of Selborne
- Coffee with Date and Walnut Loaf
- The Play Room
- Kipling's dislikes
- Deadman's Plack
- Netley Abbey Ruins
- Portsea Sagas
- Lilian Harry's Family Connections
- Crossing the Bar
- John Betjeman and Bevis Hillier
- Growing up in Portsmouth
- More Edward Thomas
- Two blokes and a shed
- In the shadow of the Cathedral
- Hampshire Days
- Mr Hardy Writes a Poem
- "Steep" is apt
- Thackeray in Fareham
- Forgotten Favourite?
- Daniel Clay's 'Broken'
- Pell and Tess
- Edward Thomas and Froxfield
- Betjeman explores hidden corners of Hampshire
- Rebecca Smith
- Right of Access
- Hampshire songs, poems, and ditties
- In this house
- Words & Walks
- England, Their England
- An Ode to a Road
- The story of a house
- Crime Connections to the City
- John Keat's Ode to Autumn
- William Lisle Bowles, poet
- Future Princes of Winchester
- Spike Island by Philip Hoare
- The marriage of souls
- Rural Rides: William Cobbett
- Elinor Brent-Dyer remembered
- Dornford Yates' Hampshire connection
- The Marlows, their maker and stealing a corner of Dorset
- Saint Cross: England's Oldest Almshouse
- Winchester the whole day through
- HOW TO BE A BETTER PERSON
- Otterbourne's Enid Blyton? Charlotte M. Yonge (1823-1901)
- Odo's Hanging is missing
- The Warden
- Charles Kingsley's Letters
- Owslebury Bottom
- See it My Way
- Introduction to Melesina Trench
- Some Hampshire road signs read Jane Austen Country
- Flora Thompson: published poet
Recent posts
- Postscrpt to a previous find
- The uses of a detective
- Reading Detectives film
- Virginia Smith remembered
- Mary Sumner
- A272: An Ode to a Road (by Andy)
- The hunt continues
- Winchester MP Mark Oaten to publish book
- Chalet School
- Bags of Books and Enthusiasm
- Chalet School author
- Poetry in the pub
- Wealth of words in Winchester
- Hampshire Gets Going
Help the team
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