Lucy Coats (born April 1961) is an English writer of picture books, poetry, stories and novels for children of all ages.
Beautiful watercolours by Peter Malone and a lyrical text inspired the Sunday Times to name it their Children's Book of the Week, and call it a ‘masterpiece’.
The narrator is Atticus, a sandalmaker from Crete, who travels round Ancient Greece with Melissa the Donkey, telling the stories in the actual geographical locations where they are meant to have happened.
Takes the boy bard, Coll, and his magical raven, Branwen, on a quest round the British Isles to find Merlin and rescue the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain from Viking raiders.
On the way from his home at Callanish in the Hebrides, he visits the Isle of Man, Ireland, Wales, Brittany and Cornwall, telling fifty of the best Celtic myths and legends on his way.
It tells the story of Linnet Perry, whose destiny is set as the Maiden Guardian from the moment a boy dies in Black Meadows on a fine spring evening, Linnet must conquer the dreadful worldwyrm and send him back to sleep at the heart of the earth, and her hair-raising quest will take her from her hometown of Wyrmesbury to the otherworld of Avallon to battle the evil Fey sorceress, Fidget Reedglitter.