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BfK No. 46 - September 1987

Cover Story
The illustration on our cover is by Stephen Lavis and is taken from the paperback edition of The Hounds of The Morrigan by Pat O'Shea (Puffin, 014 03.2207 8, £2.95). We are grateful to Puffin Books for help in using this illustration.

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Astercote

Penelope Lively
(Puffin Books)
978-0140319736, RRP £3.99, Paperback
10-14 Middle/Secondary
Buy "Astercote (Puffin Books)" on Amazon

Goacher is a throwback to a past time. From the moment that the children catch sight of him, with his long, matted hair and old ragged clothes, it's clear that this is definitely not the Twentieth-Century Burton man. Could it be, as the children's village of Astercote was wiped out by the Black Death in the fourteenth century, that there is some mysterious connection between Goacher and this past? The story develops along this spooky hypothesis with the scent of plague in the air, and the supernatural never far away. Or is it that, sophisticated as we think we are, we are just as superstitious as the folks were in these pre-media, medieval times?

Reviewer: 
Bill Boyle
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