Age 11+

This clever and entertaining historical black comedy is not for the squeamish. It opens with a precisely described beheading. Yet its wry tone disarms the horrors, turning it into a sophisticated fairy-tale. It is the rollicking story of well-bred Alice, whose Uncle Frank is beheaded for supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie and who decides, since she was fond of her uncle, to rescue his head from a spike on the Temple Bar and reunite it with the rest of his corpse. She finds herself on the run in the company of the hangman, Dan Skinslicer, a decent chap who does what he can to relieve suffering by doing his job well – with one swift, clean stroke of a sharp axe. She and Dan have helter-skelter adventures and narrow escapes, pursued by the King’s Men, including a handsome, blue-eyed captain whose allegiances shift. With a cast including a man-hunting spinster aunt in silly wigs, an adulterous duke with incriminating laundry, and Alice’s father, obsessed with measuring rain, it is full of fun and period detail, containing both a twist and a touching ending.

(Puffin £4.99)

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