When Ellen Carr, daughter of a militant suffragette and raised to be an intellectual, takes a job in Austria as housemother at the Hallendorf School of Music, Drama and the Dance she simply wants to cook beautiful food. What she finds when she reaches Schloß Hallendorf is an eccentrically magical world occupied by wild children and a tortoise an wheels.
Life in Hallendorf seems idyllic, but outside the castle Hitler's Reich is already casting its manacing shadow over Europe and the persecutions have begun. Through her growing friendship with the mysterious groundsman Marek, Ellen encounters the dreadful reality of flight from Nazi Germany, and , on the brink of war, discovers a passion that will shape her life.
In this witty, touching and above all delighful novel, Eva Ibbotson combines an immensely satisfying love story with a gripping account of a gathering storm of war.
Life in Hallendorf seems idyllic, but outside the castle Hitler's Reich is already casting its manacing shadow over Europe and the persecutions have begun. Through her growing friendship with the mysterious groundsman Marek, Ellen encounters the dreadful reality of flight from Nazi Germany, and , on the brink of war, discovers a passion that will shape her life.
In this witty, touching and above all delighful novel, Eva Ibbotson combines an immensely satisfying love story with a gripping account of a gathering storm of war.
Ibbotson, as always, manages to transport the reader, if not to a fantasy world, at least to a world full of enchantment, where it seems anything could happen. Her portrayal of all the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, is fantastically unconventional, and throughout the book, her scene setting is truly perfect . . . Ibbotson is evidently a master at knowing just how much description to put into a scene, and this is what makes the book so special. Children's Books Review Guardian