Natasha Mac a'Bháird - The Tower Ghost: A Sycamore Hill Mystery - Book Review Explore - Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books

**Natasha Mac a'Bháird - The Tower Ghost: A Sycamore Hill Mystery - Published by O'Brien Press Ltd (1 April 2024)**

Chapter 1: A New Beginning at Sycamore Hill

The grand gates of Sycamore Hill Boarding School stood tall and welcoming as Clare nervously stepped onto the cobblestone path leading to her new home. The crisp Donegal air filled her lungs as she took in the sight of the ancient building surrounded by lush greenery and whispered secrets.

Chapter 2: The Mysterious Tower Window

As Clare settled into her dormitory with her roommates Rose and Molly, a chill ran down her spine when she noticed an old tower looming in the distance. That night, as the moon cast an eerie glow over the school, the girls saw a pale face at the tower window and heard faint cries carried by the wind.

Chapter 3: Whispers of the Past

Rumours of a ghost haunting Sycamore Hill swept through the corridors like wildfire. Clare and her friends couldn't ignore the whispers of a tragic incident from years past - the mysterious death of a pupil whose spirit was said to linger within the school's walls.

Chapter 4: The Haunting of Sycamore Hill

Determined to uncover the truth behind the ghostly sightings, Clare, Rose, and Molly delved into the school's history, unearthing hidden secrets and forgotten memories. But the more they searched, the more they realised that some mysteries were best left undisturbed.

Chapter 5: Unraveling the Enigma

As they pieced together clues and followed cryptic clues, the girls found themselves drawn into a web of intrigue that led them to the heart of the tower. There, they uncovered a truth more chilling than they could have ever imagined - one that connected the past to the present in ways they never thought possible.

Chapter 6: Facing the Unknown

In a race against time, Clare and her friends must confront the ghostly presence that haunts Sycamore Hill before it's too late. With courage and friendship as their guide, they journey into the depths of the tower to confront the secrets that lie within.

Epilogue: A Timeless Friendship

As the sun rose over Sycamore Hill, casting a golden light over the school grounds, Clare, Rose, and Molly stood united, their bond forged through shared adventures and the mysteries they had unravelled. Though the ghost of the tower had faded into memory, their friendship remained as strong as ever, a testament to the enduring magic of Sycamore Hill.

**Natasha Mac a'Bháird - The Tower Ghost: A Sycamore Hill Mystery** is a tale of friendship, courage, and the enduring power of curiosity in the face of the unknown. Join Clare and her friends on a spooky journey through time and mystery as they uncover the secrets of Sycamore Hill and the ghost that dwells within its walls.

Can they solve the mystery before a killer strikes again?

Daisy May Johnson - How to Be Brave - Interview (Q&A) - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books #7

 

It's time for another lovely interview with local debut author Daisy May Johnson. How to Be Brave was published back in July 2021 by Puskin Children's Books and has one of my favourite book covers of the year. This loveable mystery should appeal to both mystery seekers and action armchair lovers. 

We carefully put some questions together, under the flicker of glorious candlelight, with the hope to reveal more about the book and the author. So sit down with a cup of Yorkshire tea (possibly a slice of cake) and enjoy the interview. If you would like to support the author by reading a copy of the book then you can purchase it right HERE 

• What keywords best describe your debut book, How to Be Brave?

I would go for: buns, nuns, ducks, friendship, boarding school, and adventure (and I think my narrator would ask for Victoria Sponge to be added as a keyword...!)

• I understand that you love libraries and particularly visiting them. With the restrictions over the last year, do you feel this has hindered your writing and creative flow?

Libraries are very important to me. I'll never get over how amazing they are. I think the fact that we have spaces where people can better themselves - for free! - is one of our greatest achievements. The restrictions over COVID have proven challenging, for sure, not just for my reading of comic books and taking out reference material for book two, but also for those times when I wanted to work in the café and listen to the world around me. As a writer, I love that noise and vibrancy and I'm incredibly grateful to all of the medical personnel and the scientists who developed the vaccine because they gave it back to me. 

It's also worthwhile paying tribute here to all of the remarkable library staff who - the moment that COVID hit - pivoted their services to deliveries, kerbside collections, lucky dips, distanced browsing, enhanced electronic delivery, zoom book clubs and so more. Librarians come into contact with all parts of society - some of them incredibly vulnerable and/or isolated - and the power of their work has never been more impressive. 

• There seem to be a lot of authors (including celebrities) deciding to write for children at the moment. What were your reasons for selecting children as your audience?

I've never wanted to write for anybody else but children. I used to work in a public library and honestly, the Summer Reading Challenge was one of the best times ever. There's nothing better than young readers who are giddy with excitement over a book that they love. Why would anybody not want to be part of that? And with regards to the other part of this conversation, I think there's some nuance to be had about the position of celebrity authors. I have all the time for them if they understand where they are, what they're doing and do it well, and I think something like Nadiya's Bake Me A Story does this excellently. There are others though, that I have a lot of issues with! 

• How do you go about writing realistic characters and can (or do) they take you to places you have no control over?

I think the idea of realistic characters in fiction is something really interesting because it's an inherently artificial space, right? A book is a created and crafted thing, so there's always going to be that edge of the unreal about anybody who lives within it. What I think you need to do is to find the legitimacy - you have to find justification for what your characters do and make it feel legitimate. If readers believe why something happens and what the rationale behind it is, then that something will work. One of the things I wanted to do with How To Be Brave was to do and feature a lot of things that didn't normally appear in children's fiction but I didn't want to be tokenistic about it. I had to have it all work within the rules of that world. I had to have the story earn the things that I wanted it to do. 

• How would you describe the music soundtrack to your book?

Oh this is interesting! Okay so for me when writing it, I listened to a lot of 90s pop and also an enormous amount of Ben Platt, 1930s music, Nicki Minaj, and movie soundtracks. I suppose in a way that eclecticism would carry over to the soundtrack of the book itself - the big, scopey sounds of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack would overlap some Noel Coward before Siobhán Donaghy would cut in and we'd finish off with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal doing "What You Own" from Rent. A little bit of everything, really, but all of it full of heart and feeling. 

• How would you define brave and do you think our concept of this has changed in literature over the years?

I think sometimes bravery can be characterised as a very big thing. I read a lot of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century fiction and sometimes it's quite startling what these stories give to the reader. I picked up a batch of Boy's Own annuals from this period recently and every other boy was either nobly sacrificing himself for King and Country, going to the end of the world as part of the Empire, or doing remarkable acts of bravery for his friends on the battlefield. It was eye-opening stuff.

For me, I found interest in the small and quiet acts of bravery in the world. I wanted to explore the very intimate and personal side of what it meant to exist and to make sacrifices for the people that you love - all those little acts of bravery that perhaps nobody ever knows about but happen every day. People are complicated. Adults, children, all of us. And we do a lot for the people that we love. It's kind of cool to explore that. 

• Would you have read your book as a child?

Yes! I would have read it for sure - and would happily read it now :) I was always able to roam throughout the library and would just pick books from wherever looked interesting. Obviously, some choices worked better than others, but that sense of empowerment was really important to me. 

• You have received some lovely quotes from readers on the internet. What has been your favourite comment and why?

I was very touched by the lovely review from Sophie (aged 9) at the Book Nook (https://booknookuk.com/2021/06/08/how-to-be-brave-by-daisy-may-johnson-reviewed-by-sophie/) because it came with art! The first ever! (I'm still not over how amazing it is). 

Mr Ripley's Guest Post: My Literary Hero Ray Bradbury by Philip Caveney

My Literary Hero by Philip Caveney

Picture this. 

I’m fourteen years old and I’m stuck in a boarding school in Peterborough, while my parents are on an airbase somewhere in Malaysia, where they’ll live and work for the next three years. The school is a horrible place. Put aside all that nonsense you read in Mallory Towers. This is a barbaric hellhole where corporal punishment is an everyday occurrence and where even the prefects have permission to slipper your backside for misdemeanours like slovenliness and tardiness and… well, just not looking quite right. I really shouldn’t name the place because that would be unprofessional but… it’s called The King’s School, Peterborough. We kids have other, more inventive names for it.

Naturally, I long to escape, but I can’t do that physically, not unless I want to be virtually caned insensible, so I’ve devised a method of freeing my mind. I simply go to the well-stocked library, select a book and promptly lose myself in it. Because a book can take you anywhere in the world and even, out of it.

One day I pick up a book that will change my life forever. It’s called Something Wicked This Way Comes and it’s by Ray Bradbury.

Now, I’m not a complete novice when it comes to Mr B. The very first thing I was given to read at ‘big school’ was The Fog Horn, from his short story collection, The Golden Apples of the Sun, so I already know he’s good. But this book… this book is different. This book blows me out of my little socks. This book is midnight carnivals and mirror mazes, blind witches and haunted carousels, it’s Mr Cooger and Mr Darke’s Pandemonium Shadow Show and it is every wonderful twisted thing that every teenage boy desires. I breathe it in like oxygen for the soul. It is genius. It is perfect. And when I have finished reading it, I think a very strange thought: this is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a writer!

I start, pretty much there and then. I start with short stories, which I read to my classmates after lights out (8 pm, no exceptions) with the aid of a contraband torch. I listen to their criticisms and then I write another story and another one, hoping that each time I’ll get more positive comments and after a while, I decide it’s time to have go at a novel. That doesn’t really work, not the first time, but I have the bit between my teeth now and I think, I’m going to keep doing this until I’m good enough to be published.

It takes me ten years.

Picture this. It’s 1983 and I’m working as a film critic for Piccadilly Radio. I’ve published a couple of books by now and they’ve done okay. I’m really excited because today I’m reviewing the long awaited film adaptation of Something Wicked This Way Comes, directed by Jack Clayton and starring Jonathan Pryce as Mr Darke. I’ve waited over twenty years for this moment.

And sadly, inevitably, it’s really disappointing. It’s disappointing mainly because it’s not the succession of images I’ve carried around in my head for so long. I knew how each scene should look. I had filmed it with my brain, over and over until I got it perfect. I feel so strongly about it that I go home and I write a letter to Ray Bradbury himself, courtesy of his publishers, expressing my dissatisfaction and telling him how important his book was to me. How dare somebody make a lacklustre version of his masterpiece? How dare they? 

Against all the odds, he writes back to me, a lovely long letter, warm and sincere, thanking me for taking the trouble to write and telling me that he agrees, the film hasn’t quite caught what he was trying to do, but that this is the best attempt yet to get one of his books into a movie theatre and maybe the best he can ever hope for. I still have that letter, it’s one of my most treasured objects.

Picture this. It’s 2013 and I’m on holiday in Spain. Glancing at Facebook on my phone, I notice that one of my friends has just said, ‘Phil Caveney is going to be so sad to hear this news.’ But because of a glitch in the system, I can’t find the original post my friend was referring to. What can possibly have happened? And then it dawns on me. It must be Uncle Ray. And sure enough, the news is soon confirmed. Ray Bradbury has died. He was 91 years old, so he had, what people call, ‘a good innings.’

It’s a bad day when your childhood hero dies. You somehow think they’ll live forever. And many will argue that Ray will do exactly that, because his books will always be around. But will they? I am constantly dismayed when I go into a school to do workshops only to discover that none of the kids have heard of him (in some schools, none of the teachers, either!) In every school I visit, I urge the pupils to read Something Wicked. I tell them what a wonderful work of imagination it is. And I tell them how that book changed my life.

And now, I suppose, I’m saying it to you, dear reader. If you haven’t caught up with this classic fantasy novel, why not give it a shot? Trust me. You will not be disappointed.

Andrew Mulligan - RIBBLESTROP

Mr Ripley's review

The story is set in a bizarre Boarding School with a bunch of odd pupils and even stranger teachers. This book is a great read, the story is quirky in its execution with great imaginative qualities which work really well. I love all of the characters in this book, as they each individually make the story. Whilst the descriptive work, Andrew has used, builds a brilliant picture. As I followed the story, I chuckled along the way with the funny moments. Whilst enduring the strange and unusual happenings; each working well with each other. I don't think you'll find another book like it! It's well worth a read; transcending from yet another great debut author. Five out of Five - great story, incredibly unique with an eye-catching cover. The pop-art style reflects the story within.


Synopsis

Roofless dormitories, distracted teachers and a lethally dangerous underground labyrinth - Ribblestrop's visionary headmaster is out of his depth even before the pupils arrive! And when they do - what a bunch! There's Sanchez, a Colombian gangster's son hiding from kidnappers; Millie, an excluded arsonist and self-confessed wild child; Caspar, the landlady's spoiled grandson; the helpful but hapless Sam and his best friend Ruskin, plus a handful of orphans from overseas, who are just happy to have beds - even if they are located in a roofless part of the building...Anything could happen - and anything does!

Published by Simon & Schuster Children's 6 April 2009


I'd like to thank all the readers, publishers and authors who have helped me with this blog. I look forward to all your comments.