Showing results by author "Eva Ibbotson" in All Categories

In 1896, in a pilgrim church in the Alps, an abandoned baby girl is found by a cook and a housemaid. They take her home, and Annika grows up in the servants' quarters of a house belonging to three eccentric Viennese professors. She is happy there but dreams of the day when her real mother will come to find her. One day a glamorous stranger arrives at the door.

Spring, 1922. Tessa is a beautiful, tiny, dark-eyed princess who’s given up her duties to follow her heart and work backstage at the Viennese opera. She keeps her true identity a well-guarded secret, but when a wealthy, handsome Englishman discovers this bewitching urchin backstage, Tessa’s two lives collide - and in escaping her inheritance, she finds her destiny....

When Ellen Carr abandons grey, dreary London to become housekeeper at an experimental school in Austria, she soon knows she's found her calling. Swept into an idyllic world of mountains, music, eccentric teachers and wayward children, Ellen brings order and joy to all around her. But it's the handsome, mysterious gardener, Marek, who intrigues her - Marek, who has a dangerous secret. As Hitler's troops march across Europe, Ellen finds she has promises to keep, even if it means sacrificing her future happiness.

Susanna Weber is the best dress maker in Imperial Vienna. Through skill and hard work, she now owns her own dress shop, looking out over the beautiful Madensky Square. To do so, she has left her past behind, if not without regret, at least resolutely. Looking around her, at her customers and friends, Susanna is aware that she has more than most - but a few small changes cause her to realize just how precarious her situation is.

Ruth lives in Vienna and is wildly in love with Heini Radik, a brilliant young pianist. When Hitler’s forces invade, Ruth’s family flees to London, but she cannot get a passport. Quin, a young professor and friend of the family, visits Ruth and offers a marriage of convenience. On their return to London, Quin begins to fall desperately in love with her. But then Heini turns up.…

Fulton Snodde-Brittles has gone to the Dial a Ghost agency with an evil plan. He wants to hire some truly terrifying ghosts to scare his nephew Oliver to death. ‘The Shriekers’ are the most violent and sickening sceptres the agency has, but a mix-up means the kind Wilkinson ghosts are sent in their place. Now Oliver has some spooky allies to help him outwit the wicked Fulton!

Beyond the everyday world of King's Cross Station lies an island of oddities and magic. When their infant Prince is stolen, the island's magical residents form a team to rescue him. The only trouble is, they can't get to him for nine years.

Anna, a young countess, has lived in the glittering city of St Petersburg all her life in an ice-blue palace overlooking the River Neva. But when revolution tears Russia apart, her now-penniless family is forced to flee to England. Armed with an out-of-date book on housekeeping, Anna determines to become a housemaid and she finds work at the Earl of Westerholme's crumbling but magnificent mansion.

Maia, an orphan, can't wait to reach her distant relatives a thousand miles up the Amazon. She imagines a loving family with whom she will share great adventures. Instead she finds two spiteful cousins who see the jungle as the enemy and refuse to go outdoors.

Rupert, the young Earl of Westerholme, returns home from the war - and Anna, a housemaid, falls hopelessly in love with him. But they can never be together - Rupert is engaged to the snobbish and awful Muriel. And anyway, Anna is only a servant. Or so everybody thinks.

Arriman the Awful, Wizard of the North, is tired of being the most evil wizard in the world so he decides he must get married and have a son to take over. His wife must be a witch with awesome powers but the organised contest has awful consequences.

Alex McBuff doesn't want to sell the family castle. An orphan, its ghosts have been like a family to him. But it is falling to pieces through lack of money. A Texan billionaire offers Alex $500,000, but on condition that it is ghost free.

Deep in the Himalayas, the daughter of an English earl is kidnapped by a huge hairy monster. Agatha Farlingham is introduced to a family of motherless yetis and devotes her life to their upbringing. She teaches them to talk, tells them stories and insists on polite manners. But as time passes, tourists and yeti-hunters arrive in to the mountains. Agatha knows that there is one place where they would be protected - at her home in England. So begins a hugely entertaining road trip half way across the world...

Weekly ballet classes are Harriet Morton's only escape from her intolerably dull life. So when she is chosen to join a corps de ballet which is setting off on a tour of the Amazon, she leaps at the chance to run away for good. Performing in the grand opera houses is everything Harriet dreamed of, and falling in love with an aristocratic exile makes her new life complete. Swept away by it all, she is unaware that her father and intended fiance have begun to track her down.

The ghosts of Craggyford Castle have been happy for 500 years. But outside the world is changing. Soon there will be nothing left of their old haunts, with new factories and houses as far as a ghost can see. So they set out to find a new home.

Ruth lives in the beautiful city of Vienna and is wildly in love with Heini Radik, a brilliant young pianist. But her world is about to change forever. When Hitler's forces invade, Ruth's family flees to London, but she is unable to get a passport. Quin, a young professor and friend of the family, visits Ruth and in an effort to bring her back to London, he offers a marriage of convenience. As Ruth throws herself into her London life, Quin begins to fall desperately in love with her.

Heckie is not just a witch. She's a good witch who wants to make the world a better place. So, with her Toe of Transformation and her Knuckle of Power she turns unpleasant people into animals. But to her surprise, Basil's parents want their son back.

Panic seizes the country when three children are seized by a gang of kidnapping aunts. But far away, on a mysterious island, the children soon realize their strange captors are not like normal criminals. In fact, Aunts Coral, Etta and Myrtle are on a secret mission. And the children have been specially chosen to help them in an extraordinary, dangerous and magical adventure…A hilarious, charming fantasy from bestselling author Eva Ibbotson, read by Susan Jameson.

Tally Hamilton is furious to hear she is being sent from London to a horrid, stuffy boarding school in the countryside. And all because of the stupid war. But Delderton Hall is a far more interesting place than Tally ever imagined, and an exciting school trip to the beautiful and luscious kingdom of Bergania whisks Tally into an unexpected adventure . . . Will she be able to save her new friend, Prince Karil, from terrible danger before it's too late?

Heckie is determined not to be just a witch. With the help of local wizards and a little boy, she sets about putting the world to rights. But then she falls under the spell of smarming, charming Mr Knapsack and all her good work is nearly undone.