The Septimus Heap world has been with me for a very long time. It was something I wanted to write but never quite knew how to begin—until one day I had a really powerful image of a baby abandoned in the snow and I knew that was it. And so the wonderfully strange and yet oddly familiar world of the Castle and all its inhabitants began to unfurl before me—and, in time, about four million other people too.
The first book of the series, MAGYK, went to number one in the Children’s Hardback section of the New York Times bestseller list and was translated into 33 languages. Here are some of my favourite covers:
So what’s it all about, then?
It is the most difficult thing for a writer to describe their own books, all I can say about Septimus Heap is that it is full of adventure and humanity, that although it is labelled fantasy it really is about people like you and me in a slightly different world – set in the distant future - with a touch of Magyk. If you’ve not read it, jump in and see what you think. The series develops and grows with each book and forget the age bandings that bookshops throw at you, I write for all ages.
And here is The Darke Toad, an e-book novella about Septimus and Marcia's visit to the port at Halloween, it takes place between Magyk and Flyte.