Fire Spell by Laura Amy Schlitz

We open the book to find an old witch Cassandra dreaming of being burned alive.  She wakes remembering a man called Grisini who had told her the opal that gives her her magic would burn her alive.  She tries to smash the stone, then...

We shift to London in the autumn of 1860.  Clara is a upper class young girl hoping that Grisini the puppeteer will be allowed to come to her birthday party.  She lives in material wealth but abject emotional poverty, the only survivor of the cholera that took her 4 siblings including her twin brother.  Her mother's grief makes her home a haunted melancholy place, Clara has to be silent and never to be a child.

Lizzie-Rose and Parsefall are orphans, employed and sometimes fed by Grisini.  Parsefall is learning to play the puppets, Lizzie-Rose does the fetching and carrying.  Dirt poor and unloved they marvel at Clara's house as they bring the puppet stage in.  Paresefall has his mind on petty theivery, but Grisini has something much worse in mind and the children find themselves unwittingly caught up in his spell casting and ancient feud with Cassandra.

A lovely well written book, you can really feel the texture of London both from the viewpoint of Parsefall and Lizzie-Rose struggling to stay alive and Clara who has the money to pay road sweepers to clear the roads of horse dung for her should she step down from her carriage.  Schiltz conjures the cold, the filth, and the suspense as the narrative hurtles onward.  A great read for I would say 9-13 year olds.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Police Officer Peter Grant is doing sentry duty in Covent Garden in the aftermath of a body being found missing its head when he spots a possible witness, but as the short pale faced man steps into the light identifying himself as Nicolas Wallpenny it becomes clear that he is, in fact, transparent. Well trained PC that Grant is he continues with the interview and it becomes clear that Wallpenny's information is credible. Grant only speaks of his experience to fellow probationer (and unfulfilled love interest) Lesley May, but goes looking for Wallpenny for more information and it's then that he is asked what he's doing by Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale who responds to Grant's honest reply that he's looking for a ghost with interest. Nightingale turns out to head up a division of the Met that deals with the supernatural, but the joy of this book is that Grant is never more than a good well trained police officer so there is a strong thread of self deprecating humour throughout. The ideas are fascinating, a murderous spirit and personfications of the buried rivers of London, turf wars on a supernatural scale. There are similarities to writers such as Mieville and JK Rowling, tv staples such as X Files, Torchwood and Doctor Who, to Hot Fuzz and the graphic novel character Constantine but Aaronvitch writes about it all in a completely fresh way creating a world that whilst fantastical is still completely consonant with present day London and all its horrors, grime, wonder and human character.

Shane Spall has in effect written  three books in one. On the simplest level this is a tie in to the BBC 4 TV series, a narrative of Shane and Timothy Spall's attempt to sail from London to Wales in their sea barge The Princess Matilda. They are hilariously hapless, on their first journey they don't make it beyond the Thames Barrier and Timothy takes a thorough crash course in navigation before they set out to sea. They encounter beautiful moorings and full on prejudice and snobbery in equal measure.

This narrative itself would have made for a good book, Shane Spall's mercurial nature in contrast to Timothy's laid back nature and penchant for pink crocs is hilarious but Spall intersperses this story with the heartbreaking one of Timothy's battle with leukaemia and her diaries from nights sat by his bed when he hovered between life and death. Shane had already lost her father and best friend to cancer and her words are honest and searing.

Thirdly there are snippets of Shane's own life, again written with unflinching honesty. Of her previous life as a flower child, of her drug addiction, of the Welsh husband she lost and her experience of giving birth to their daughter Pascale. 

These elements turn a very good book into a firm favourite, and one that I read into the night. I knew Timothy Spall from tv and film, a respected and beloved actor, and this book deepened that respect.

London Unlocked by Emily Kerr and Joshua Perry

I have the Edinburgh guidebook from this series and was so impressed I got the London one too for our next visit at Easter.  I wasn't disappointed.  This colourful book is amazing, it's both about children's activities and written for children themselves. 

For six different areas of London, beginning with Central and moving outwards, you are invited to do something, for instance, Stare a TRex in the Eye ... at the Natural History Museum. Each activity is given a double page spread which gives fascinating facts about the activity, top tips, jokes, other things to include in your visit, photo opportunities, and a 5 star sticker scoring section with gold stars included at the back of the book. In the bottom right of each page is address information including the closest tube station, opening dates and times, a coding system showing whether the place has a shop, cafe, is good for wet weather, and whether there are height restrictions and a pricing indicator from FREE through £(cheap as chips), and ££ (cheap as fish and chips) to £££ (not cheap at all). At the end of the book are a set of top fives (top five places to shop for toys and sweets, markets, run around etc) and a parent page. 

Completely recommended, everything you need for a holiday that allows you to stay within your budget and whilst giving you full details of all the major attractions also includes the more obscure delights of the capital city.

The Amulet of Samarkand: A Bartimaeus Graphic Novel adapted by Jonathan Stroud & Andrew Donkin

This graphic novel adpatation of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimeus book is excellent.  Nathaniel is the young apprentice of a magician in a modern day London where the ruling class of politicians are replaced by magicians, and the underclass is those without magic.  Nathaniel is humiliated by Simon Lovelace, ruthless and powerful contemporary of his master and in order to take revenge summons the ancient djinn Bartimaeus.  Great plotting, great adpatation and wonderful artwork of the story of a young magician to rival Timothy Hunter.