Robin Bennett has actually created my dream comedy author combination – Roald Dahl and Terry Pratchett.

Welcome to “The Hairy Hand”. According to my astonishing memory recall, OK, according to Wikipedia, this was on the Chicken House long list in 2013.

And Septimus was previously called Octavius. It’s interesting that the name changed as I’m a huge fan of the Septimus Heap series (by Angie Sage) and did find the name a little confusing, and the two characters look annoyingly identical in my mind.

Whatever, the history, I can’t believe I had to wait five years for it to be published!

Poor Septimus has parents who are EXACTLY like The Twits, while he’s a young Rincewind. What could possibly go wrong? For good measure, add a mysterious uncle, a box with a hairy hand, and a secret book. Of course, the answer is everything. And it does.

I confess I’m puzzled that the blurb describes it as scary – it’s really not – so don’t let that put any more nervous readers off. It’s a funny adventure with some (mostly accidental) magic thrown in.

What a great way to start 2019. This is a great fun read for 8-12 year olds. There’s probably a very funny joke about five hairy hands, but that just sounds weirds, so five stars.

The blurb

A scary adventure for 8 -12 year olds, full of jokes, magical familiars and a Dickensian cast. When Septimus inherits a magical, treasure-finding Hairy Hand from his uncle, life suddenly becomes a lot more exciting – and dangerous!

Author Bio

Robin Bennett is an author and entrepreneur who has written several books for children, adults, and everything in between. Listed in the Who’s Who of British Business Excellence at 29, his 2016 documentary “Fantastic Britain”, about the British obsession with fantasy and folklore, won best foreign feature at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards, and his first book for young adults, Picus the Thief, won the Writer’s News Indie Published Book of the Year Award in 2012.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/MonsterBooksRaw

Purchase Links

Amazon –  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hairy-Hand-Robin-Bennett/dp/1999884442