The Cockatrice Boys (Puffin Teenage Fiction) Book

The idea for this book is so sensational it could have come from The Sunday Sport: hideous demonic monsters invade England, laying it to waste and devouring most of the inhabitants. Embargoed by the rest of the world, the English barricade themselves underground until, after five years on the defensive, a counter attack is planned. The Cockatrice Belle, an armoured and heavily-armed train, is built to attack and, if possible, find the source of the plague. The train sets out for Manchester with her crack Cockatrice Corps crew, and by chance picks up Sauna, a young girl who embodies both cause and cure. Readers will be gripped by Joan Aiken's group of evocatively Dickensian and strange characters--Dakin, Clipspeak, Bellswinger and Tom Flint--as they follow their desperate bid to save England in this quirky, inventive fantasy.Read More