Fern Capel
3 primary works
Book 1
English fantasy at its finest, this exciting new trilogy steps into the gap that exists between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Clive Barker’s Weaveworld.
A Key – lost since the dawn of civilization – is about to be found…
A mysterious house in the remote Yorkshire moors awaits sixteen-year-old Fern and her brother Will, when they are taken there for the summer holidays. Their hearts sink at the coming weeks of boredom, but as the old house gradually gives up its secrets, their familiar world starts to fracture, giving access to a magical and corrupt land destroyed thousands of years ago.
Outside on the moors stands a stone, watching the house, but not always from the same place; inside, a sinister statue glows malevolently. At night, strange creatures seek to enter the house; and gradually their father’s exotic new partner takes over part of the house, keeping her secrets behind magically locked doors. And as their lives are invaded by the fantastical, Fern finds herself being courted by the enigmatic wanderer, Ragginbone, and the sinister art-dealer, Javier Holt, for they know that she has the Gift: a unique and powerful talent for magic not seen for ten thousand years.
Hidden somewhere within the house is a talisman which has been sought by the forces of good and evil for millennia. A talisman so powerful that it can be used to shape time, to destroy civilizations, perhaps even conquer death. With events moving to a desperate and fatal climax, Fern and Will must decide who, and what, to believe.
…but what kind of door will it open?
Book 2
English fantasy at its best, The Dragon-Charmer follows the exciting debut from Jan Siegel, Prospero’s Children.
Twelve years have passed since the traumatic events that took place in Prospero’s Children, and it seems that Fern Capel has almost succeeded in putting aside the memory of that magical, terrifying summer, when she fought a witch, fell in love, and made a deal with a demon. More tellingly, she has denied the ancient heritage that will allow her mastery of the Gift.
But the past is about to catch up with her. Fern is soon to marry the academic and media personality, Marcus Greig – some twenty years her senior – and he has decided that they should hold the wedding at the Capels’ summer home in Yarrowdale. When Fern returns to the house with her best friend, Gaynor, ancient forces are awoken once more, and Fern will find that she is once again forced to choose between love and destiny.
The Dragon-Charmer continues the lyrical, richly atmospheric and enthralling tale begun in Prospero’s Children. Spellbinding in its depiction of places both familiar and strange, of characters both magical and sinister, it is classic English fantasy at its finest.
Book 3
It is a fearsome world of witches, dragons, and goblins, where a gnarled tree bears fruit of human heads. Fern Capel believes she has left it all behind. But now that world is seeping into modern day England: The witch-queen Morgus, who had imprisoned Fern in the ghostly Otherworld, has returned from countless years of exile beneath the gruesome Eternal Tree. Stalking the twenty-first century in her Prada stilettos, Morgus has the mindset of the Dark Ages and vows to rule the ancient kingdom of Logrez, now modern Britain.
Most of all, Morgus wants revenge on Fern Capel. Rejuvenated through sorcery, neither charm nor weapon can harm the witch-queen. She has planted a cutting from the Eternal Tree in the real world and awaits with impatience the ripening of its terrifying bounty. When Fern learns that her enemy cannot be defeated through conventional means, she turns to her best friend, Gaynor, her brother, Will, her old mentor, Ragginbone, and Maldo, the goblin-queen. Together, they track Morgus through London’s high-society parties and seedy, sinister contacts, until they finally draw a magic circle in a Soho basement. Fern Capel knows that survival is not enough: This time she must win. But she does not yet understand how high a price she will have to pay.
In this thrilling final novel of her acclaimed trilogy, Jan Siegel takes advantage of her greatest strengths as a writer—weaving magic into a modern-day world and bringing vivid life to a host of characters that readers will not soon forget.