The Bridge in the Clouds

The Magician's House Quartet #4

by William Corlett

William, Mary, and Alice return to the ancient and mysterious Golden House in Wales for the holidays, but notice that Uncle Jack is on edge. He and Phoebe rarely speak, and baby Stephanie is always crying. Morden's evil rats are everywhere. Where is the Magician? Now, the three children face their most crucial and desperate adventure of all.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, German Literature, Magic

Paperback

First published July 15, 1992

About the author

William Corlett (8 October 1938 - 16 August 2005), was an English children's writer, best known for his quartet of novels, The Magician's House, published between 1990 and 1992.

Corlett was born in Darlington, County Durham. He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh, then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as an actor while embarking on a literary career during the 1960s, and wrote plays and adult novels as well as the children's novels for which he is particularly remembered. Several of his works were adapted for the screen.

Later in life he came out as gay, and it was from his partner, Bryn Ellis, that he gained some of his inspiration for The Magician's House. Corlett died of cancer at Sarlat in France.

Reviews

[Rebecca Rossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re-read for me! Really nice to delve into this series again as an adult this time. It wasn't exactly as I remembered but I still enjoyed it.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really glad I finally got round to finishing the Magicians House Quartet. The Bridge in the Clouds continues many of the themes of the 90s series (climate change, vegetarianism, pollution), still relevant today, and ties it up nicely with a bit of time travel, magic, and plenty of philosophical musing. This is the kind of children’s classic I’m happy to reread, even with some dated dialogue!

[Abi Mallett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rereading a childhood favourite as an adult. The final installment of the Magicians House quartet. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first two but it still had its moments. It is quite philosophical for a children's book and in places (especially near the end) it felt a tiny bit preachy. Still enjoyable although Cinnabar broke my heart, if you know you know.

[Jelovar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Auch wenn das Ende so sein musste, wie es gekommen ist, hat es mich nicht vollends befriedigt zurück gelassen. Dei Reihe ist aber immer noch eine riesen Empfehlung für Kinder (~10 Jahre)

[Sony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not me BAWLING out my eyes on the last 20 pages

[Jools · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this series very much. I was talking to an author earlier this week (William Hussey) about children's fiction and we got onto the subject of 'purpose'. During most of the last century many people thought that children's fiction should have a strong moral purpose. It should educate and guide them. And, although much of it did, the best was cloaked in the most amazing works of art. Think C S Lewis and Narnia, JRR Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, or even the simpler stories with very strong themes of friendship, loyalty, good versus evil as in The Famous Five; Blyton. Now, although as I have said, I did find this quartet very enjoyable and quite gripping enough for me to read it to it's completion, I did find it somewhat preachy. But that may be because I am a 60+ librarian and have read a great deal of children's fiction. I do think it is a story my young grandchildren would really like and would lend itself to being read aloud very well.


The themes in this book are conservation of nature, good versus evil, innocence, knowledge, love, constance, anti-hunting, vegetarianism, equality of the sexes, ultimately the path of righteousness. Religion is not mentioned at all, but righteousness as in being true to yourself, those around you and the land and its creatures.

William did not think that children's fiction should be written with such a purpose, but that a writers' own moral standpoint may be reflected in the writing because it is a part of them. Of course, that doesn't mean that children do not learn a great deal from fiction, because they do. As do we all. Through stories we learn to see problems from differing views, we see how the characters overcome adversities of all kinds, we find loyalty, love, understanding, acceptance and so much more. We find empathy and that is a big lesson.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've finally completed the fourth and final book in William Corlett's "The Magician's House Quartet." It took me quite a while to get around to this last book because, quite frankly, I just wasn't all that excited to get to it. Yes, I wanted to wrap up the plot, and The Bridge in the Clouds did do that. But I just grew weary of the whininess of the three children in the series. Also, the author likes to try to draw out the suspense with the old trick of delaying the "what's going on here" part of the plot. Many many times during these novels, the kids have an opportunity to gain more information to help solidify the overall plot, only to be interrupted and not gain the insight they (and the reader) were striving for. I can handle that in moderation but here it became predictable; so much so that as soon as some enlightenment was imminent, I knew somehow it wouldn't be revealed.

So by the end of the four books, I just wanted it over with, not really caring about the characters. The final scenes tried to explain it all at once with an unsatisfying result. Granted, I am not the intended audience for these books as they are Young Adult. And perhaps I am spoiled by so recently reading a Narnia book. But still, well...I'm happy to be finished with the series.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made for a lovely conclusion to the story. It isn't happy-happy, bad things happen, and yet everything is still "okay" in the end -- or, well, not quite: but you know it will be. I was surprised at how much impact the end had on me -- I'd slowly, subtly grown to love the characters, more than I thought I had.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it all in one go - my favourite of the four by far. A lovely adventure to round things off, reminded me a bit of Colin Dann's Battle for the Park as well with the whole battle aspect... oh my, poor Cinnabar though, that made me cry! :(

[Six-Fingered Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, brilliant book. Really sad the series is over, very much enjoyed reading them. Completely unexpected twist at the end which is always good.