Katherine Rundell’s enthusiasts are legion and they’re classy. Queen Camilla has authorised her book as a Christmas present to year 6 children; Michael Morpurgo compares her to Tolkien. That last one doesn’t wash, though she is an academic (stamping ground, the 17th century). The comparison that really comes to mind is with JK Rowling, especially now that she’s got a seven-figure deal for the movie rights to her Impossible Creatures series. The latest, The Neverfear, confirms the resemblance.
The hero, Christopher, a lonely motherless boy, is without any obvious friends but joyfully embraces a world of half-weird, half-familiar creatures in the archipelago he enters through a portal in a river. There’s a Hagrid-like figure in the berserker, Nighthand, who has a soft centre in spite of his huge bulk and fighting spirit; there’s a scholarly Nereid called Irian who shares her knowledge with her young charges. As for the feisty young princess-heroine,
