The Murdstone Trilogy Synopsis
Award-winning author Philip Murdstone is in trouble. His star has waned. The world is leaving him behind. His agent, the beautiful and ruthless Minerva Cinch, convinces him that his only hope is to write a sword-and-sorcery blockbuster. Unfortunately, Philip - allergic to the faintest trace of Tolkien - is utterly unsuited to the task. In a dark hour, a dwarfish stranger comes to his rescue. But the deal he makes with Pocket Wellfair turns out to have Faustian consequences. The Murdstone Trilogy is a richly black comedy from an author described by one American critic as 'the best writer you've probably never heard of'.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781910200216 |
Publication date: |
2nd July 2015 |
Author: |
Mal Peet |
Publisher: |
David Fickling Books |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
320 pages |
Primary Genre |
Fantasy
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Recommendations: |
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Mal Peet Press Reviews
'The Murdstone Trilogy has instantly become one of my favourite books - right up there with Terry Pratchett and The Princess Bride for fantasy comedy. The writing is sublime and the humour is lacerating. I loved every warped sentence.' - Eoin Colfer; 'I enjoyed this novel hugely. It had a fat, throbbing vein of dark hilarity running right through the middle, with skewered literary personages shrieking and wittering either side. It's a complete nutty fantasy, and yet there's enough weird truth in it to really worry any writer - oh, okay, any reader - who picks it up. If you've ever wondered what the heck writers do all day, The Murdstone Trilogy will give you a good idea - bwahaha - ' - Margo Lanagan'
About Mal Peet
Mal Peet, winner of the Nestle Bronze Medal Award and the Branford Boase Award grew up in North Norfolk, and studied English and American Studies at the University of Warwick. Later he moved to south-west England and worked at a variety of jobs before turning full-time to writing and illustrating in the early 1990s. With his wife, Elspeth Graham, he has written and illustrated many educational picture books for young children, and his cartoons have appeared in a number of magazines. He and Elspeth live in Exmouth, Devon.
Tamar won the Carnegie Medal and is a multi-layered tale of love and betrayal. He has written three other linked novels, Keeper, The Penalty and Exposure all featuring the football obsessed Paul Faustino, a sports journalist in South America who is reluctantly drawn into murders and mysteries.
Exposure won the 2009 Guardian Award for Children’s Fiction. On his award win, Mal says, “I’m totally thrilled to win the Guardian prize. I’ve been buying the newspaper for 35 years, so I’ve worked for it! In fact, if you subtract the prize money from what I’ve spent at the newsagents, the Guardian is way ahead on the deal! I don’t mind – the Guardian prize is very special. It’s judged by other writers so it’s pretty likely that if you win it, you deserve it.”
Mal Peet died in March 2015.
More About Mal Peet