A Land Aflame211 BC: Hannibal's struggle against the Romans in Italy continues, but the Carthaginians have been utterly defeated on Sicily. Fleeing the island to Spain, Hanno and Aurelia are shipwrecked, and taken prisoner by local tribesmen. Unless they escape, a life of slavery and brutal treatment awaits. Aurelia's brother Quintus is posted with his comrades to Spain, where a new commander Scipio has been given the task of defeating the Carthaginian generals

a cataclysmic war cracked the world open

Her best yet

layered with morally grey characters

their father angrily roams the streets of Neasden

they must figure out who is responsible

Iain is finally given a clue to unlocking the mystery of what so traumatised his father that he turned away from his own son

we would grow up

a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years

From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris

Bruno must make sure it is the right one

Varese's gothic tale is sinuously elegant and claustrophobic as deadly Victorian wallpaper' Kate Griffin

decorated fir trees to cosy evenings by the fire in the Gryffindor common room and the joy of opening presents on Christmas morning