THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO FELICITY BRADY
A FANTASY WHIRLWIND
LONDON author, Edward H Trayer: Showcasing his latest children’s novel, The Gospel According to Felicity Brady.
A fantasy whirlwind, the book follows a young girl who discovers a magic bookshop in the small town of Twice Brewed. For the next 704pp (yes, 704!) Felicity duels monster Dorfmorons and Shubablybubs, a killer Woolly Glumsnapper and a host of evil sorcerers and demons. She is even whisked off to a trench on the eve of the Battle of the Somme, to the doomed Titanic and to The Twin Towers in New York.
Trayer (39) who works as an English teacher in London, is also planning 2 further books. “The Gospel According to Felicity Brady is the first of a trilogy. In this book Felicity is 14 years old, in the next, twenty-nine and in the final book, sixty.” Following in the footsteps of Harry Potter, the book is almost 250,000 words long and the plot can be a little complex. “There is a wonderful array of mythical monsters and oddball lands, but there is a strong of element of comedy in it too. If you love fantasy but also enjoy a good adventure with lots of twists and shocks, this book is for you.”
It has taken Trayer almost ten years to write the novel. So, what inspired him to do it? “Years ago, I had a bookshop, but sadly not too many customers, so I stared to write a children’s novel. My shop was ’Down some steps, below a crumbling bridge’ and this is the first line of the first story in the book. When I had finished the first paragraph, I remember thinking ’Yeah, that’s okay’, so I kept on going.”
And the hardest part of writing. “To keep going! When there’s a hundred normal, boring jobs to do and writing is the last thing on the list. Then, when you finally get to it, it’s almost midnight and you feel exhausted.”
The Gospel According to Felicity Brady (The Wishing Shelf Press, Nov 09) is an anthology of five shorter novels describing Felicity’s exploits in the magic bookshop during her teens. Now Trayer is hoping to start work on Book Two, in which Felicity, now twenty-nine, is forced to return to the magic bookshop to battle a growing evil.
The author is planning a gruelling number of book signings and school visits in London and the rest of the country up to Christmas, and in the New Year he will be promoting the novel in the Czech Republic and in Sweden.
The first 750 books will be numbered and signed by the author at a book party in the celebrated children’s bookshop, Tales on Moon Lane on Princess Hill in London. “We expect over 200 invited guests to join us,” says Trayer. “The book is full of wonderful drawings and looks fantastic. The perfect Christmas present in fact.”
The book, aimed at 8 to 13 year olds, will also be available at Borders, all good independent bookshops and online at www.felicitybrady.co.uk.