The dust-jacket describes this third instalment of The Edge Chronicles as “the final triumphant tale in a magnificent fantasy trilogy”. But the concluding sentence of the introduction reads, “What follows is but one of those tales”, and most fns will yearn for further volumes .

I read the first book, Beyond The Deepwoods, to a Year 4 class, and one group of boys (now Year 6) have been avid followers since. For them, it has been a bigger hit than Harry Potter. Stewart’s prose is accessible , but Riddell’s illustrations make these novels boy-friendly.