The Various: The Touchstone Trilogy [Hardcover]

The idea of a race of little people (fairies) living secretly among us has had a powerful hold on the imaginations of writers from Shakespeare to Terry Pratchettand Eoin Colfer. In The Various, Steve Augarde has used this fascination brilliantly to craft the first novel of a trilogy full of breathless action and wonder. When 12-year-old Midge is sent by her concert-violinist mother to spend the summer at the farm of her sweet but bungling Uncle Brian, her initial resentment gives way to delight in the freedom of exploring the countryside. When she discovers a tiny winged horse lying wounded in an outbuilding, she is awestruck to find out that he comes from a civilisation of five various tribes of little people living in a nearby wood—-something readers will have already learned from alternate chapters set in the fairy world.

Disaster threatens when Uncle Brian plans to sell the wood to a developer, and Midge and her cousins find (to their peril), that some of the little people are not as helpless as they seem. Steve Augarde draws on his visual and auditory skills as a BBC animator and picture book author/illustrator for vividly realised detail--the dumpy and addled fairy queen, the smells and moods of the English summer, the sharply differentiated accents and personalities of each of the five tribes--in an entrancing debut fantasy. The book is recommended for ages 10-14. --Patty Campbell, Amazon.com

'The Various is the best book in the entire universe.' (Naomi Vibert)

...the narrative pace never falters...the reader is drawn gladly into the enchantment.

The first novel in a gripping trilogy about twelve-year-old Midge, and her discovery of the Various, a tribe of fairies whose livelihood and existence is becoming increasingly threatened.

A gritty and captivating story of courage and strength against terrible odds, this is the story of Midge, abandoned with her eccentric uncle during the holidays, and her adventures with the Various, a band of earthily realistic fairies. The existence of the Various, who are strange, wild and sometimes even deadly, has been kept secret since the beginning of time, but when their world begins to clash with that of human beings, their livelihood is threatened with extinction. This is a wonderfully imaginative story of love and loyalty, and is the first in a powerful trilogy.

‘It is a fact, an absolute fact, that there are creatures on the surface of this earth that have never been observed by man . . .

We may think we have seen all that there is to be seen on this tiny planet of ours.

We most certainly have not.’

There have been stories of the ‘little people’ – piskies, fairies, Jack O’Lanterns, call them what you will – ever since the world began. Quiet rumours and whispered hearsay are all they amount to, until a twelve-year-old child discovers the truth, hidden away among the briars and brambles high above the Somerset wetlands. The truth is strange and wild – and sometimes deadly.

So powerful is Steve Augarde’s imagination, and so compelling his tale of the extraordinary tribes who struggle for survival in the land of human giants, that you too will become a believer and perhaps even be tempted to seek them out for yourself. It’s unlikely that you will find them – though they are surely there . . .

You have been granted three wishes, and The Various is but the first.

Steve Augarde was born in Birmingham, but has spent most of his life in the West Country, working as an illustrator, paper-engineer, and semi-pro jazz musician. He has written and illustrated over 70 picture-books for younger children, and has produced the paper-engineering for many pop-up books, including those by other artists - as well as providing the artwork and music for two animated BBC television series. Steve is married with two daughters and lives in Somerset. The Various is his first novel.