Debut-author Ian Johnstone offers his readers an enormous and richly created world to explore in this elaborately constructed fantasy. Sylas Tate steps into the unusual Shop of Things and, through his remarkable powers of imagination and his ability to do magic, he is swept off on an adventure into another world known simply as Other. But Other is not any arbitrary creation. Sylas soon finds that it is only in Other that he will be able to find the part of himself that is missing and become whole.
Nick Lake, Fiction Publishing Director at HarperCollins Children’s Books, says: “The Bell Between Worlds is quite simply the best 10+ fantasy I have read in a decade, combining beautiful, pitch-perfect writing with heart and humour – all the more remarkable as it’s a debut. I cannot wait for other book-lovers to discover its wonderful, immersive magic for themselves.”
We think The Bell Between Worlds is a perfect choice for Reading Groups & there is a useful pack which you can download (see right) with suggested questions and discussion points.
A glorious epic fantasy in the grand tradition of CS Lewis and Philip Pullman. The Mirror Chronicles will take you into another world, and on the adventure of your lifetime...Half of your soul is missing. The lost part is in the mirror. And unless Sylas Tate can save you, you will never be whole again. Sylas Tate leads a lonely existence since his mother died. But then the tolling of a giant bell draws him into another world known as the Other, where he discovers not only that he has an inborn talent for the nature-influenced magic of the Fourth Way, but also that his mother might just have come from this strange parallel place. Meanwhile, evil forces are stirring, and an astounding revelation awaits Sylas as to the true nature of the Other. As violence looms and the stakes get ever higher, Sylas must seek out a girl called Naeo who might just be the other half of his soul - otherwise the entire universe may fall...
Ian Johnstone read English Literature at Cambridge University before joining Macmillan, where he worked in a variety of senior marketing, sales, editorial and management roles. He left publishing in 2005 to pursue an interest in writing: The Mirror Chronicles is the astonishing result. Ian lives in Oxford with his family.
