This is the first of four books of short stories from husband and wife team Peter Dickinson and Robin McKinley. Each book reflects and explores the magical and symbolic characteristics of the elements water, fire, air and earth, and contain stories from each author. The tales from the first book include stories of mermaids and underwater cities, celebrating the wondrous power and unknown territory of water.
Author Biography
Peter Dickinson PETER DICKINSON has won numerous prizes for his books for young readers, including the Carnegie Medal (twice), the Guardian Award and the Whitbread Literary Award (again, twice). His previous titles for Transworld have included a number of novels for teenage readers, as well as the enchanting Time and the Clock Mice, Etcetera, Author lives: Hampshire Robin Mckinley Robin was an only child and her father was in the Navy. The family moved every year or two - California, Japan, upstate New York, New England and early on Robin found the 'the world of books much more satisfactory than the unstable so-called real world.' Writing herself followed on naturally for her from her passion for reading and when she became old enough to realise that authorship was something she could realistically aspire to her path was set. Robin got a taste for being settled when she bought a house in a small village two-thirds of the way up the coast of Maine. However, she was on the move again when she met and married English writer, Peter Dickinson and decided to make England her home. She explains Living in permanent exile is a whole new experience. England is home now in a way nowhere in the States has ever been; I've lived in this house, which has seen three generations of Peter's family so far and is watching the fourth grow up, longer than I've lived anywhere. That doesn't make me English. But I'm not American any more either. Robin and Peter write on opposite sides of the wall so that they can shout through the door to each other. When Robin is not writing she enjoys gardening, walking their dogs, cooking and of course, reading. She goes for a run most mornings, early, before she goes to her desk saying that it's her best plotting time. For more information visit www.robinmckinley.com
