In this sequel to The New Policeman, a visit to Tír na n’ Óg becomes a necessity after J J Liddy’s daughter meets a ghost guarding the beacon. There’s something frightening at hand which threatens the whole human race and JJ knows that help can only come from one place - Tír na n’ Óg. JJ needs Aengus Og and his fairy kin but will they come to the rescue? Kate Thompson’s trilogy continues to infuse real life with a delicious touch of magic in a powerful story about human survival.
JJ Liddy sometimes blames his unreliable temperament on the visit he made to Tir na n'Og, the land of eternal youth, when he was fifteen years old. It's perhaps not surprising that his children have also turned out to be a little eccentric, especially eleven-year-old Jenny. She forgets to go to school, can't bear to wear shoes, and spends entire days roaming the mountainside. It's up there that she meets the ghost. He is guarding a pile of rocks known as the beacon, and when some archaeologists arrive to excavate it, they run into the strangest kind of obstruction. But it is not people the ghost fears, and when the real enemy finally reveals itself, the future of the entire human race is threatened. Only Aengus Og and his fairy kin can help now.
Kate Thompson is one of the most exciting authors writing for young people today for she is a born storyteller, is highly original and thought-provoking in her ideas. She has travelled widely in the USA and India and studied law in London. After living in County Clare, she moved to Kinvara in County Galway and there, three years ago, she discovered her passion for playing the fiddle. She is now an accomplished player and also has a great interest in restoring instruments. Kate Thompson has won the Children’s Books Ireland Bisto Book of the Year award three times – in 2002 for The Beguilers, in 2003 for The Alchemist’s Apprentice and in 2004 for Annan Water. The New Policeman won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Book Award Children’s category in 2005.
