My latest book BRIGHTLING is published on 2 January. Hooray! I'm so thrilled.


This is the second book inspired by the work of Charles Dickens and this time the book I've used is Oliver Twist. However, as you can see from the cover, the hero is a girl - called Sparrow - and she has a companion, a cat called Scaramouch. So far not much like Oliver Twist.

There are also the flying horses - of course there are.

Miss Minter is my Fagin character. She wears red lipstick and has dyed white-blonde hair and sits on a pink chaise lounge.  Not very Fagin, except in her evil nature!

My favourite person in the book is Gloriana. She is the character of The Artful Dodger but in my book her role is different.
     
Gloriana is the first person that befriends Sparrow, like the Dodger does, when she arrives in Stollenback and takes her to Miss Minter's attic room.  I think this black and white image is perfect - you get such a sense of urgency there. Gloriana's chacater is also Nancy . . . but I don't want to give too much away...