The Dunnets
And finally, I cannot finish without mentioning the Dunnet family (remember the quirt-wielding quadruplets from Rudy Idolice’s Peregrinating Panopticon of Wonders?). Descendants of Billy and Rosalyn are alive and well in Kent. So pleased were they to find out about their talented ancestors that they made a very generous donation to The Starlight Foundation as a mark of their gratitude.
TALES FROM THE SINISTER CITY
When Ludlow Fitch suffers an unspeakable betrayal he runs from
the rotten, stinking City. On the night he enters Pagus Parvus a
second newcomer arrives at the remote village. Joe Zabbidou,
a mysterious pawnbroker who buys people’s deepest, darkest
secrets, is searching for new customers – and for an apprentice.
Shadowy Ludlow seems perfect for the job.
But as he begins his new life recording the villagers’
fiendish confessions, Ludlow’s own murky past threatens
to come to light . . .
Shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Award
TALES FROM THE SINISTER CITY
Since his father disappeared, Pin Carpue has lived alone
in the dismal city of Urbs Umida. Then he meets the
Bone Magician – a man who can make the dead speak – and
Pin is drawn into a mysterious world of illusion and deceit . . .
TALES FROM THE SINISTER CITY
A foul tale of DEATH and REVENGE!
THE PLACE: Grim and gruesome Withypitts Hall.
THE HERO: Hector Fitzbaudly – a boy
with revenge on his mind.
THE VILLAIN: A story FULL of villainous rogues . . .
but pay attention to the GHASTLY glass-eyed fiend
known only as the Eyeball Collector.
Another poisonously brilliant adventure from the
dark imagination of F. E. Higgins.
TALES FROM THE SINISTER CITY
Prodigious praise for the writing of F. E. Higgins:
‘Atmospheric, suspenseful and cleverly written with a love of unusual words (“gibbous”, “crepitate”), it is not for the faint-hearted’ Sunday Times
‘Young readers with a taste for the macabre will find it deliciously scary’ Observer
‘Writing so atmospheric that the fumes from the noxious River Foedus seem to seep off the page and swirl round the reader’ Telegraph
‘If you can imagine Terry Pratchett’s Discworld rewritten by a junior James Joyce you might get an impression of the playfulness, drama and disgust of Higgins’s created world’ The Times
‘Gruesome, assured storytelling’ Evening Standard
‘[A] deliciously dark and satisfying experience’ Stirling Observer
More twisted tales by F. E. Higgins
The Black Book of Secrets
The Bone Magicain
The Eyeball Collector
Delve further into the dark underworld of
The Sinister City . . .
www.fehiggins.com
To Patricia et Gulielmus
A posse ad esse
Excerpt from
ON MADNESS
Look well behind and to your front
Look always to the side
For madness creeps on soft-soled shoes
Dark-suited and wild-eyed
With hairy palms and pigeon-toes
And fingers splayed so wide
Beware, I say! Beware! Beware!
Or reader, woe betide!
Beag Hickory
First published 2010 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2010 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-230-75287-0 PDF
ISBN 978-0-230-75286-3 EPUB
Copyright © F. E. Higgins 2010
The right of F. E. Higgins to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title page
Dedication page
Epigraph
Contents
A Note from F. E. Higgins
Prologue An Eventful Supper
1 A Room with a View
2 Memories
3 A Meeting of Mind
4 A Disagreement
5 Article from the Opum Oppidulum Hebdomadal
6 The Great Escape Plan
7 A Not So Great Escape
8 A Delivery
9 A Nocturnal Adventure
10 The Painted Man
11 Out of the Frying Pan . . .
12 Article from the Opum Oppidulum Hebdomadal
13 An Invitation from the Mayor
14 The Merry Inmate
15 A Deadly Diagnosis
16 A Book and an Egg
17 Departure
18 A Letter to Dr Tibor Velhildegildus
19 Article from the Opum Oppidulum Hebdomadal
20 The Lodestone Procedure
21 A Boating Trip
22 Thoughts of the Monstrous Creature
23 The Third Party
25 Settling In
26 A Proposition
27 A Mystery
28 Tea Leaves and Secrets
29 Ghost?
30 Down to Work
31 All Part of the Job
32 An Unexpected Encounter
33 Article from the Opum Oppidulum Hebdomadal
34 Wanderings
35 Mox Nox in Rem
36 A Pipe and a Pest
37 Thoughts of the Monstrous Creature
38 On the Trail of the Elusive Mr Faye
39 Eavesdropping
40 The Perambulating Submersible
41 The Beginning of the End
42 Too Much Information . . .
43 Bad Timing
44 The Maiden Vogage of Indagator Gurgitis
45 Loose Ends
46 A Girl of Many Talents
47 Article from the Opum Oppidulum Hebdomadal
48 A Letter to Robert
49 The Confession of Rex Grammaticus
A Note from F. E. Higgins
Appendix 1
Copyright page