Devilskein and Dearlove

Just as Neil Gaiman's

The Graveyard Book reworked Kipling's

The Jungle Book for a modern audience with a liking for the supernatural,

Devilskein & Dearlove is a darker, more edgy, contemporary reworking of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic

The Secret Garden. An orphaned teenager is taken in by a reluctant distant relative, and in her new home makes an unexpected friend and finds a secret realm. It has shades of the quirky fantastical in the style of Miyazaki's (Studio Ghibli) animated films like

Spirited Away and

Howl's Moving Castle (originally a novel by Diana Wynne Jones).

Alex says "As a child

The Secret Garden was one of my first favourite novels – one of the first I relished reading by myself. Although

Devilskein & Dearlove is very different, it was inspired by that novel and its themes."

"Alex Smith's quirky imagination knows no bounds." – André Brink