Darkwood
Magic is forbidden in Myrsina, along with various other abominations, such as girls doing maths.
This is bad news for Gretel Mudd, who doesn’t perform magic, but does know a lot of maths. When the sinister masked Huntsmen accuse Gretel of witchcraft, she is forced to flee into the neighbouring Darkwood, where witches and monsters dwell.
There, she happens upon Buttercup, a witch who can’t help turning things into gingerbread, Jack Trott, who can make plants grow at will, the White Knight with her band of dwarves and a talking spider called Trevor. These aren’t the terrifying villains she’s been warned about all her life. They’re actually quite nice. Well… most of them.
With the Huntsmen on the warpath, Gretel must act fast to save both the Darkwood and her home village, while unravelling the rhetoric and lies that have demonised magical beings for far too long.
Take a journey into the Darkwood in this modern fairy tale that will bewitch adults and younger readers alike.
Gabby Hutchinson Crouch was born in Pontypool Wales, raised in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and later studied at the University of Kent. In 2014, Gabby was awarded the BBC Radio Comedy Writers Bursary; past recipients include award-winning writers such as Grant Naylor (Red Dwarf) and Simon Blackwell (Veep, The Thick of It). She has written for CBBC's Horrible Histories and specialises in writing satire for The News Quiz, The Now Show, Dead Ringers, Spotlight Tonight with Nish Kumar and iTV1’s Newzoids. She is the author of the Darkwood series, The Rooks series and the Cursed series. She lives in Canterbury.