Books by Barbara Spencer

'Where historical fiction and fantasy collide''You must promise never to speak out about your heritage,' his grandmother warned, 'because people fear anything different.'

Growing up amidst the ruins of war, four children play among the bridges and cobblestone walkways of an old city, using them as a backdrop for their games. Pieter Bader, the eldest, wants nothing more than to work with their father in the family business, designers of mirrors for royalty since the 17th century.

Micky thinks life's rotten: he's the youngest in the family and can't do anything right. Fortunately, help is at hand when an old fisherman offers to teach Micky to swim. Although, there's something rather curious about this particular fisherman...He wears a seaweed shawl and his boat appears to have legs.

Lives will change forever. Children of powerful and wealthy parents are vanishing. It's serial kidnapping on an international scale and the kidnappers are calling all the shots.

Dedicated to the more mature echelons of society and delightfully illustrated by Katie Beltrami, who just happens to be young, Barbara Spencer's Age and the Antique Sideboard takes a fun-filled look at life, in which there are some extraordinary goings-on.

Jack, who shares his name with the soccer superstar, Jack Burnside, is a keen footballer. When his best mate, Saleem, fails to return after a visit to his home, there is little Jack can do about it, until he receives a mysterious parcel in the post.

Philip James Longbotham is twelve. His nickname is OC and he possesses a most amazing brain. It might not go round corners but it's a whiz at science and plays chess like a dream.

One morning when she gets up, Mary feels quite miserable and is horrid to her baby brother, Daniel. But when she steps on a old lady's toe at the park and refuses to say sorry, something quite extraordinary happens - she suddenly finds she can't talk and can only cluck.

Fifteen year-old Molly is determined to become a swimmer, to the dismay of her parents. When the family go to stay in a 17th century manor house, Molly inadvertently triggers a time-chute and re-appears in 1648, at the end of the Civil War, to find she has taken the place of Molly Hampton, the eldest daughter in a Puritan family.

Two sorcerers: one good, one bad. Jacob, who uses his power to safeguard the Prince and inhabitants of the Kingdom of Sudana; Mendorun who wields an army of giant crows and is snatching away children to steal their souls and create birds that can think. His plan? To become the most powerful sorcerer on earth and destroy anyone that gets in his way.