by Amy Sparkes
And that’s exactly what happened to me.
Nine
P.S. And tell him to drink this tea. It’s just magical.
The fishwife put the tin in her basket and turned back down the alley to deliver the note and the tea.
“Consequences,” she murmured, as she went. And underneath the scarlet shawl, the witch smiled.
Acknowledgements
Every story begins life as a magical spark, and there is a whole team of marvellous and enthusiastic people who fan it into a beautiful flame. I’m immensely grateful for everyone who has done this along the way, as otherwise this story would consist of nothing more than the words “The House at the Edge of Magic – fun idea?” in a star-speckled notebook. (And that’s a bit short for a book).
So firstly, a huge sparkly thanks to my wonderful agent, Julia Churchill, who always believed in this story, even when the first draft resembled the Cupboard Under the Stairs. Thank you for your patience, your enthusiasm and for laughing in all the right places. I most definitely owe you a potful of The Finest Tea in All the Realms.
A big heartfelt thank you to everyone at Walker for totally understanding and loving Nine and wanting to share her story. Special thanks to Denise Johnstone-Burt for falling in love with the title, the House and the world; to my extremely talented editor, Gráinne Clear, for a phenomenal job in keeping an excitable author and her gaggle of unruly characters under control (more or less); and to the absolutely spot-on Non Pratt, who pointed out there are only so many times a person should flop into a chair. You have all sprinkled magic of your own into this book. Thank you.
Books are always brought to life with pictures, and I’m delighted to be working with the amazing Ben Mantle. Thank you so much, Ben, for capturing these characters and their world so perfectly. An absolutely stunning job.
Huge thanks to my mum/Official Sounding-Board for loving these characters and hearing their voices as loudly as I do. (They move to her head when they give up trying to get through to me). And thanks to my dad for encouraging me to write for older children in the first place, and for keeping and treasuring all the things I wrote when I was a child. It is such a gift to know that someone believes in you. A special thumbs-up to you both for bravely entertaining a large handful of your grandchildren while I escaped to a café to create the Sometimes Dead. As you do.
I must give a shout out to librarians everywhere who open so many doors and possibilities to children, helping them to discover other worlds. Most of my own magical adventures were because of you. Thank you.
And finally, to my husband Alyn and our six children. It’s not always easy having a wife and mother who spends a significant portion of her time in a completely different reality, balancing wooden spoons on her shoulder and muttering about evil toilets. Thank you for putting up with me (and the host of characters which regularly and inevitably burst into our lives and set up home). Here’s to many more magical adventures with you all. Hopefully without the evil toilets…
About the Author
Amy Sparkes studied English Literature and Theology at the University of Kent, and began writing after moving to Devon with her husband, six young children and an overactive imagination. Her books have appeared on CBeebies storytime and been shortlisted for several book awards, including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the BookTrust Best Books Awards for Do Not Enter the Monster Zoo. She runs author events for children, writing workshops for aspiring children’s writers, produces the Writing for Children pages for bestselling Writing Magazine, and writes short stories for Aquila magazine. She co-founded the Writing Magazine Picture Book Prize for aspiring picture book authors.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.
First published 2021 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2021 Amy Sparkes
Cover and interior illustration © 2021 Ben Mantle
The right of Amy Sparkes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-9990-5 (epub)
www.walker.co.uk
The author will donate 5% of
her royalties for this book to ICP Support
www.icpsupport.org
Reg. charity number: 1146449
