Ballad of Favour - Hardcover

Dickens, Monica; Overton, Glynis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0001845357 ISBN 13: 9780001845350

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1985

Synopsis

It is late September and, with the summer season ending, the life at the Wood Briar Hotel slows down. Rose Wood goes back to school, but she still helps with running of the hotel on the weekends, when those seeking a break from the city life visit her parents' country guesthouse. Rose misses the summer buzz and her freedom from school, and with several weeks passing by quietly since her last magical adventure with the Great Gray Horse she worries that her mission as the messenger of this ancient, brave horse is over. But when the mysterious composer, Mr Vingo, returns to the hotel, Favour, the Great Gray Horse reappears and Rose is summoned for another mission. This time she travels to an abandoned house in a town nearby where a forlorn family tries to survive their hardships. Will Rose and the horse be able to help them? Will Rose resist the temptation to share her secret with her friends, Abigail and Ben? She can only stay the messenger of the horse if she is brave and works undiscovered. But as Rose's supernatural mission becomes more challenging and scary, her everyday life in the Wood Briar Hotel becomes also more complicated. She does not seem to get along with her father anymore and, with a big wedding party coming up, the Wood family must work in unison. The Ballad of Favour, first published in 1985, is the second book in the four-part fantasy adventure about Rose and the magical Great Grey Horse. Here, Monica Dickens reveals another thread of the exciting legend of the cruel Lord of the Moor, alongside Rose's mission to protect innocent people from misery; but she also explores, with delicacy and a sense of humor, problems experienced by early teens on their way to adulthood.

About this title

About the Author:

Great granddaughter to Charles Dickens, Monica (1915-1992) was born into an upper middle class family. Disillusioned with the world in which she was brought up, she acted out - she was expelled from St Paul's Girls' School in London for throwing her school uniform over Hammersmith Bridge. Dickens then decided to go into service, despite coming from the privileged class; her experiences as a cook and general servant would form the nucleus of her first book, One Pair Of Hands, published in 1939. Dickens married an American Navy officer, Roy O. Stratton, and spent much of her adult life in Massachusetts and Washington D.C., but she continued to set the majority of her writing in Britain. No More Meadows, which she published in 1953, reflected her work with the NSPCC - she later helped to found the American Samaritans in Massachusetts. Between 1970 and 1971 she wrote a series of children's books known as The Worlds End Series which dealt with rescuing animals and, to some extent, children. After the death of her husband in 1985, Dickens returned to England where she continued to write until her death aged 77.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0001845357
• ISBN 13: 9780001845350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160