FARPEROO

This is the hardback First Edition of Farperoo: Book One of The Dark Inventions (© Mark Lamb/Matthew S. Armstrong/The Madriax Press – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Farperoo, written by Mark Lamb and gorgeously illustrated by Matthew S. Armstrong, is Book One in a hefty three-volume hardback series of fantasy novels for older children/teenagers. There is no blurb or synopsis of any kind for this book included on its back cover or elsewhere, so here is one that was written by 'A Fort Made of Books':

Volume 1 of the Dark Inventions is the beginning of a powerful new fantasy for young readers. Set mostly in a ghastly, seaside town in a bizarro-England, for which the weather, crime, industrial pollution, corruption, and unethical journalists make Grimston-on-Sea an amazingly apt name. A weirdly talented girl named Lucy Blake - whose gifts include "inventing" (also known as LYING) - soon comes into focus. Both of her parents disappeared and/or died under mysterious circumstances, and she lives in her ancestral house with a conniving, lampstand-shaped stepmom, a spineless, jingle-writing step-stepdad, and a stepbrother whose name (Tarquin) pretty much tells you everything you need to know about him. She has a friend named Toby Lindstrom, who is pretty ordinary - not particularly brave, not very good at keeping secrets - but solidly loyal. She has another friend named Fenny who vanishes in broad daylight, on a crowded boardwalk, at the beginning of the story. And everyone else, more or less, is her enemy. That includes some pretty powerful people. By the end of the book, she has made a couple more friends (notably a "private dick" named Bentley Priory), but lots more powerful enemies including the police, the press, a law firm, the staff of a psychiatric hospital, any number of people and things in a world called Farperoo, and last but not least, an eeeevil angel named Raziel. And why shouldn't Lucy have enemies? She has the power to move between several worlds. She can conjure tons of salted-in-the-shell peanuts out of thin air. She is in possession of a book that existed before the world was created. AND she has the power to alter, create, or destroy reality simply by telling lies...erm, I mean inventions.

One of my mother Mary Shuker's  favourite expressions was "Everything comes to he who waits", and it has been proved true many times in my life, but rarely more so than on 12 May 2018. But to begin at the beginning: Back in 2010, Mom and I visited Lyme Regis, the town of fossils, on Dorset's world-famous Jurassic Coast. When we arrived, I found a parking place outside a charity shop, so, me being me, I couldn't resist popping inside to have a quick look around before we headed down into the main town centre to visit all of the fossil and mineral shops awaiting us there.

In the charity shop, I noticed a very handsome hardback trilogy of fantasy novels that I'd never seen before, with the subtitles Book One, Book Two, and Book Three respectively, and which were in mint condition and eyecatchingly illustrated throughout by truly spectacular b/w drawings. Moreover, Books Two and Three were even signed by the author! Interestingly, the publisher was some an obscure company that I'd never heard of and which I suspected may have been created specifically to publish this trilogy. So, fantasy novels, exquisite illustrations, signed by the author, and limited editions. In short, precisely my kind of books!

Yet for some thoroughly baffling reason that I've never been able to explain, I didn't buy them! Inevitably, however, I have regretted it ever since, and to make matters even worse, I was unusually unobservant that day, not noticing either their title or the author's name, so I have been unable to trace what they were. I didn't even notice the name of the charity shop, so even if I'd thought to phone them up later (which I didn't think to do), I couldn't have done, and as Lyme Regis is hundreds of miles from where I live, a quick revisit was not practical. In short, they were irretrievably lost to me, or so I thought - until 12 May 2018, that is.

I'd planned to stay in that day, to do some washing, and then put it out on the line to dry in the very hot sunshine, but at the last minute I changed my mind and on a whim I decided to go to a local car boot sale. Walking down the second aisle of stalls there, I came to one that had a trilogy of very handsome hardback fantasy novels in a pile, all in mint condition. As I looked at the front cover illustration on the first book, my heart-rate physically quickened - it looked so familiar. Surely not, I thought, not after all this time, and now only a few miles away from my home! I reached out and flicked through it, finding it packed with the most wonderful b/w illustrations, and suddenly, there was one that I recalled instantly. It was Book One from the Lyme Regis trilogy!

I carried on flicking through, and there was a second one that I remembered. I picked up the second book, turned to the front - and yes indeed, it was signed by the author, as was the third book. There could be no doubt whatsoever. Even if not the exact same copies, they were definitely the same trilogy of fantasy novels that I'd seen in Lyme Regis eight years earlier and had bitterly lamented not buying ever since. Gripping them tightly, I asked the seller how much they were. £2 for all three, she replied, or £2 for all four - as she said that, she took out another volume, which proved to be a second copy of Book One, and said that she'd let me have that one for nothing. So I paid my £2 and took what proved to be a very hefty bag of four books back to the car straight away.

Once again, everything had indeed come to me after waiting so (im)patiently for so long! And what was this elusive trilogy? Aimed primarily (though certainly not exclusively) at a young-adult readership, it was entitled The Dark Inventions, and Book One was Farperoo!

How Mom would have smiled and repeated her above-quoted maxim if she'd been here that day and seen this. Then again, why did I abruptly change my plans and decide to visit that car boot sale that day, and find the books on only the second aisle that I visited when I arrived there? Perhaps Mom is still smiling - and guiding me - in my life after all. I hope so - so very much.

Finally: click here for a comprehensive review containing further details concerning Farperoo and its author Mark Lamb.