About the Author

Piers Torday began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His first book for children, The Last Wild, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His second book, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. There May Be A Castle was a People's Book Award finalist and a Times Children's Book of the Year. The Lost Magician was a Book of the Year in six national newspapers and won the Teach Primary Book Award. The follow up, The Frozen Sea, was published in 2019. Piers has also completed an unfinished novel by his late father Paul (author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Death of an Owl) and adapted The Box of Delights and A Christmas Carol for the stage.

Reviews

Piers Torday is the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure ... Torday understands the lot of the younger sibling, the power of the imagination to heal and the strong, irregular rhythms of grief
*The Times*

Heartbreaking, surprising, uplifting - Mouse's snowbound journey is one you'll remember for a long, long time. There May Be a Castle proves that stories matter. They really do
*The Bookbag*

Piers Torday continues to demonstrate that he is one of the best writers for children working today
*The Guardian*

Original, ingenious and bold ... I am still reeling.
*The Sunday Times*

Brimming with humour and excitement ... beautifully described and the tension never breaks
*Scoop*

Heart-warming and heart-wrenching ... another fantastic tale from Piers Torday and one not to miss.
*Carousel*

An outstanding book and a future classic
*School Librarian*

Mesmerising and overwhelming with emotion.
*Booktrust*

Full marks ... for a story not afraid to take on some of the fundamentals of life while still managing to preserve the lightest of touches
*Books For Keeps*

If you were to dislike this book, I would not be your friend!
*Omer (aged 11)*

Not many books change readers' views of the world, this might be one of them.
*LoveReading4Kids*

The narrative is skillfully strung together and the ending deeply surprising, challenging the norms of what might be expected in a children's novel, which is all to the good.
*Literary Review*

A magical new adventure from the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction prize.
*WRD About Books*

A gripping, memorable adventure which celebrates the power and scope of our imagination
*The School Run*

A remarkable story of about love and loss from the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
*Hexham Courant*

Original in its accurate representation of the actual experience of children and its satirical approach to the fantastical ... this novel works emotional truth and tension into its adventure and comedy
*The Sunday Times*

A fantastical and surprising allegory, There May Be A Castle is unlike any other book for children dealing with the subjects of death, family and the power to shape your own stories. Heart-warming, heart-wrenching and, at times, quite bizarre, this is another fantastical tale from Piers Torday and not one to miss
*Carousel*

Piers Torday...is the new master of books for children who like magic and modernity with their lust for adventure.
*The Times*