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James is fed up. His family have moved to a new cottage - with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing - and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. And he's getting blamed for it. But it's not him who's writing strange things on shopping lists and fences. It's not him who smashes bottles and pours tea in the Vicar's lap. It's a ghost. Honestly. Thomas Kempe the apothecary has returned and he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It's up to James to get rid of him. Or he'll have no pocket money or pudding ever again!

Penelope Lively was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1933. She came to England in 1945, went to school in Sussex and read Modern History at St Ann's College, Oxford.

Penelope Lively contributes regularly to a number of national daily newspapers and literary and educational journals. She has written radio and television scripts and was presenter for a BBC Radio 4 programme on children's literature. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of PEN (a human rights and international literary organisation) and a former Chairman of The Society of Authors. She was awarded an OBE in 1989 and a CBE in 2001.

Susannah

This book is great fun and I enjoy it as much each time I read it. James has some riotous adventures in his new home. It has a very mischevious unwelcome guest- Thomas Kempe- a sorcerer who wants James to be his apprentice. James has to take drastic measures to evade his magical poltergeist.

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