9-12 years. An introduction to the loveable Montmorency – an extraordinary character whose double life sometimes as a criminal and sometimes as a gentleman leads him into all kinds of adventures. Dressed in tattered rags and travelling by his own very secret route, the criminal Scarper makes rich pickings from other people’s carelessness. Dressed in a top hat and a fine coat, a handsome gentleman arrives at one of the best hotels in London and checks himself in under the name – Montmorency. Against a brilliantly drawn background of Victorian London these two young men lead entirely separate lives all carried out by one person. Thrilling stuff! Montmorency on the Rocks and Montmorency and the Assassins continue the adventures of this fine young man in two more stories about his double life.
When a petty thief falls though a glass roof trying to escape the police what should have been the death of him marks the beginning of a whole new life. For he is chosen as a medical guinea pig for the Royal Society, where he comes into some very interesting information - a map of Sir Joseph Bazalgette's new sewage system.
Memorising the system and adopting the affections of the rich young gentlemen of the Society, the theif uses his knowledge to become the most elusive burglar in Victorian London. From now on, he will have two identities: Scarper - servant and sewer-rat, robbing jewels and making his escape by the underground labyrinth that lies beneath London - and Montmorency - fashionable, wealthy gentleman.
But Montmorency's new existence is fraught with danger - can he pull off the transformation and keep his secret safe...?
Eleanor Updale on Eleanor Updale: "I grew up in Camberwell in South London, half-way up a hill which had my primary school at the top, and my secondary school at the bottom. I had hardly ever been outside London when I left to go to Oxford University, where I studied history. After that I joined the BBC, working on TV and Radio programmes from 1975 to 1990. By that time I had two children, and soon there was a third. At one point they were all under three and a half years old, so I was very busy. I left my job to look after them, and got involved in all sorts of things I hadn’t had time for when I was working. You might be able to see how some of those things have crept into the books. I’ve been on the Clinical Ethics Committee at Great Ormond Street Hospital for some years now. I found lots of ideas for Doctor Farcett’s character there."
