When the mysterious MCC Berkshire starts working in Povey's Antiques Emporium he turns Ailsa's life upside down.
Ailsa's mum isn't very good at running a shop - in fact she manages to talk her customers out of buying anything at all. MCC is very different. He can sell the ricketiest old piece of furniture, but he does it in the strangest way possible. Every time a customer is interested in something, he tells them a wild and fantastical tale about it.
These stories range from adventures on the high seas, to detective stories, to ghost stories, and more. Ailsa is fascinated, even though she knows it's just a pack of lies . . . isn't it?The strangest thing of all is MCC himself - after all, he is the only thing in the shop that doesn't seem to have a story. Who is he, and why is he even here?
Geraldine McCaughrean is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award (three times), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award (four times) and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband, daughter and golden retriever, Daisy.Read more about the author here.
'I reckon Geraldine McCaughrean knocks the socks off every other children's writer today. Everything she does is different and everything works – look at her list of prizes. She must write in tremendous bursts. Some years, she's so prolific the rest of us start joking that the fairies come in at night to do her work for her. Then she'll go quiet, so unlike all those writers who are persuaded by their publishers to come up with something every year, no matter how tired or drab. If Geraldine has nothing fresh to write, she doesn't write it.' (The Guardian)
