Climbing A Monkey Puzzle Tree

Warm and witty, poignant and hysterical in equal parts, this is Karen Wallace's sequel to the highly acclaimed 'Raspberries On The Yangtze'. This book sees the protagonist, Nancy, leave Canada for a less than idyllic life at boarding school in England. There she uses her gift of storytelling as a means of escape.

"All the things I liked about trees you couldn't do with a monkey puzzle."

The boxy, spiky monkey puzzle tree stands tall and imposing outside the dormitory window of Woodmaston House for Girls, a forbidding guardian to the school's young charges. Nancy Cameron is a new arrival, not just to the Woodmaston but to England. She's rolled up from the backwoods of Canada, eager for a new life brimming with adventure.

But boarding school isn't the Famous Five fantasy that Nancy had imagined. It is an austere, loveless world after lights-out, where each girl in her dorm takes centre-stage: Sharon Downey marries Cliff Richard, Caroline Bigfoot's gorgeous brother conquers Everest.

But spinning stories for other can't hide the fact that Nancy feels horribly alone inside. And when she leads her dorm in a special fund raising event that goes tragically wrong things go from bad to worse. Nancy longs to meet Caroline's brother for real, and as her troubles build it's an encounter that can't come soon enough - until a shocking revelation comes to light . . .