Philippa W. Joyner has worked professionally as a P.A. for two decades, but in 2013 she was inspired by her children's whimsical offerings and active imaginations. The author originally grew up in Hertfordshire, and completed her studies at Bangor University, Wales gaining a B.A. Hons with Distinction in French and Theatre. She currently resides in her chocolate box village in Kent at the foot of the North Downs with her husband, two children, and a multitude of wildlife which inspired her next collection of adult books akin to Bill Bryson's wild travels.
"Anyone looking for a new Children's fantasy series should look no further than Philippa Joyner's 'Anouka Chronicles'. Full of magic, mystery and suspense you can't help but be drawn into their world. Perfect for readers in the 9-16 age range, great for Harry Potter fans looking for an alternative fantasy world to get absorbed into." - Sarah, Waterstones, Maidstone, U.K.
"The books feature an abundance of parallel worlds, mystery, peril, suspense and well-written protagonists which readers can empathise with easily. They bear comparison to Philip Pullman, C.S Lewis, Alan Garner and Kiran Millwood-Hargrave, and will be loved by fans of these authors." - Paul, Waterstones, Ashford, U.K.
THE ANOUKA CHRONICLES:
Book One.
The Old Oak Tree Synopsis
William falls from the top of a great old oak tree one day at school. Realising his fall was not just the outcome of a very much clumsy escapade, William and his sister, Belle, find themselves in the midst of trying to prevent their entire school, and village beyond, from the hauntings of the great evil witch.
In a desperate plea to save Anouka from complete demise, William and Belle Joy are hurled into a web of strange new friends supposedly there to help. The Black Witch is set to turn the human world into a slavery of coldness if she finds a way in. It will become all-powerful beyond any other control. Her accomplice, an elusive goblin, is trying to capture four children, and if these children surround the Old Oak Tree only darkness will prevail for eternity. But who is it?
Angus Moon, a charming Scottish boy, is bewildering and no one seems to understand his role; Alyssa too seems a rather knowledgeable dark horse; and Myriad, the elf, well, he's just ridiculously tiny.
A new headmaster, Mr Vixonight, is acting suspiciously and his presence is not quite right.
Miss Terrine? She just smells and seems to be only made up of bones; and Miss Lovett, too bothersome she is.
At the crux of Anouka, will the light or the dark side prevail? Will Mr Vixonight be able to hide his true colours? Will Angus Moon ever stop flirting? And Alyssa, will her heroine nature help or hinder? With all this to work out, William and Rosabella could get slain alongside their friends if they don't guard their wits, or will Mrs Joy be able to rely on her son to get back home unscathed, with at least a semi-pleasing school report? For once.
Yes, William does prevail, and surprises himself in the meantime putting himself before others, thinking, trying a resolve that only he is able to fix. William takes on the werewolf (who is the headmaster) and fixes the peril the headmaster's sister (the Black Witch) has cast on the world.
Book Two.
The Silver Chalice Synopsis
William and Belle Joy are privy to a ghostly apparition during a Christingle service in church. The apparition is stuck in time, unable to reach home. William and Belle are determined to help this pallid little girl escape the clutches of Anouka, the parallel universe in which she appears to have, unwillingly, found herself, but it is a mystery as to why she cannot pass back into her own world. The secrets of the Silver Chalice start to reveal why, as William begins to discover that, perhaps, he had a grave involvement in the little lost girl's disappearance, and if he does not play by the rules, Janet may never return home.
William's involvement is such that, if he is unable to challenge Anouka, his own existence will also lie in jeopardy, and his actions will have challenging consequences and an unbelievable outcome; he realises at last that Janet is in fact his own grandmother. William had stumbled through Janet, when holding the Silver Chalice, one memorable day whilst clownishly testing out his new ice skates, and during this time, he threw the innocent evacuee into this spiralling parallel universe.
William manages to use the Silver Chalice carefully to bring her home, but this is no easy task, and one which William only realises he can attempt when becoming its owner.
During the challenging journey to guide Janet home, William and Belle become entangled with two stubborn chimney sweeps, an artificially innocent dragon, faithful friends from the past, and a succession of family members in their youth, all equally aspiring to William.
Only realising that Janet is indeed William's own grandmother when she mutters to him, as an old lady, illuminating comments about his odd dressing gown worn by her strange friend apparent to her during her childhood after a supposed unsuccessful mission, does William try, and need, to make amends. And, little did the young lost Janet know her oddly dressed friend in 1939 was to be her grandson from the future. And little did William know that his pale ghostly friend, Janet, was his grandmother years ago.
Book Three.
The Hollow Boathouse Synopsis
The origins of Anouka and its blend into our little world starts to be identified in this book.
Earth, our world, seems simple, ordinary, and tedious to Rosa until one day she falls for the charms of a young, huge, hairy boy, Jack, from her unstoppable bicycle and, who despite Rosa trying desperately to dismiss, pulls her deeper into danger. "Pah? This is nothing," Rosa is scathing. "Have you met my witchety-cumbersome Mum? Or my Father who baked eggs onto the ceiling? Well, have you? And, excuse me? Have you seen your eyebrows lately?" And with that, Rosa perilously seeks help from her ever-growing school book Gastronomic Truths through the Ages. It never seems to give her the right result.
New school has begun for Rosa, aged 17 and three quarters from Hollingbourne, and then Angharad appears. At first, Rosa despises this teensy, goggle-eyed know-all, but they appear to have an even more mutual hate of Seamus Kroop; a gluttonous vile creep who tries to steal Rosa's gastronomic ideas. Rosa turns up in the Common Chambers at school, Wisteria's, and realises maybe life might not be so easy when she can barely levitate her signature dish, Nurse Riggle insists that she is beyond repair, Jack is more elusive as the days and nights creep about, Professor von Frik has more than a side that just rears bees, and the most idiotic one-eyed Cookster Rooster with a motherboard destined for malfunction could be the life-line that Rosa has been searching for.
Thinking that perhaps Jack is just a chancer, an elusive fly-by-night who plays on Rosa's naivety, she tries to blank his wisdom, but, unless he has cast a transparent spell on her she finds she cannot but believe his deranged tales. Should Rosa keep meeting this tall, ill-shoe-fitting man in class? I mean, he takes her underground and meets his vortex in life.
But only when it is too late does Rosa realise she is in too deep, and actually that her entire family is so much more a part of a strange new world called Anouka than she could possibly imagine. Rosa is the blood-line who opened up the portal at the very origins when Earth and Anouka collided. This man came too. Along with the blind moles who talk, and people from centuries past.
"What do you mean, they are my ancestors?" Rosa denies her involvement as destiny, but soon thinks that perhaps she should follow Jack's somewhat beguiling commands. After all, her heart does not stop thumping when he is around.
Book Four.
The Mountain and the Mirror Synopsis
Brodie brings home the school mascot, excited at first that he can taunt his own mum with its dirty, ill-infested presence. But, unaware that Zenkraw is the link to Anouka, a portal in time at the end of Brodie's dishevelled garden, Brodie is then not quite so sure. Zenkraw stinks.
Realising Zenkraw, a talking monkey which Brodie at first despises, can force him, and his determined sister, Kat, to disappear into this new world makes Brodie far too cautious. That is, until, he has no choice.
Brodie wakes up to talking moles and snarling foxes, idiotic hobnail-booted butterflies and scatter-brained magpies, and encounters near death by Phoenix, but, despite all of this, he can only return home to his spatial awareness-free mother and elusive father if he succeeds in his mission. The mission? The simple act of killing the sour Phoenix's nest of four eggs before they crack open and rule Anouka for time immemorial. Simple.
Brodie wishes he'd never got that monkey, and certainly wishes he'd never have at the top of his list a crying desire for his mum's rancid porridge; what a sad misfortune to find that an appealing desire.
Brodie discards the underworld at first, but once underground and being classed as the most inopportune King in this ancient land of Anouka ever to be discovered, Brodie becomes far too involved in this parallel universe to just simply come back home. Who'd want Scalextric over a steaming bowl of German Onion Soup anyway? Not Brodie.
Brodie and Kat realise that despite these talking creatures actually talking, they do have a lot to say. And, if Brodie and Kat listen to these odd animals, they should surely survive. They do, in the most miraculous way.
Book Five.
No Ordinary Bookshop Synopsis
Belle has grown into a fine, tenacious young lady and is ready to follow her chosen path at Edenvale University, however, Anouka, the parallel dimension, catches up with her, throwing encounters with a handsome soul mate, a wise old professor and an eccentric book shop owner into her life. She is determined not to fall for the charms her soul mate offers, but Belle finds this is not as simple as she had hoped.
At first, Belle Joy is a little dubious about winning her scholarship and heading off to Edenvale, that is until she meets this very strange, yet beguiling, young man, Ned. Ned is tall and handsome, but those qualities are never enough for deep thinking Belle Joy. Although this encounter with Ned makes her heart race, Belle cannot believe that he does not have a personal agenda, an agenda that he never seems to be able to share. Luckily for Belle, Ned is also charming, but what the quirky young girl finds most attractive about her new friend is his ability to be intense yet elusive. To Belle, this is alluring, but quite frankly, most terribly annoying at times. Is Ned genuine? Ned feels the same, Belle is quite ridiculously misleading.
Belle realises she soon has two very close confidents at Edenvale, but the ideas portrayed by each about Ned differ immensely. Her entrusted roommate, Miranda, believes Belle to be totally transparent. She sees Belle deny her love for Ned and throws that idea into disarray; most disbelieving of Belle's lack of kinship for her admirer. However, Belle's second, more mysterious, confident is Professor Argyle, and, although the strong minded young lady tries to quash her feelings for her covert colleague, Ned, she finds it's simply no good, and the Professor helps her to defy relinquishing life's true path.
Belle is daily tempted by Ned's charms. On a secret voyage to a most secluded and ramshackled book shop, Eduardo's, one afternoon, Belle realises that perhaps Anouka has caught up with her once more, but she has no intention of revealing this hidden parallel world to a soul.
However, Belle's growing, yet undefined, relationship with Ned, and equally with Professor Argyle, is so intense she does not always know which way to turn until one fateful afternoon the two worlds collide or is it three? What on earth can young Ned, Eduardo and Professor Argyle have to share that is so terribly clandestine? And if Tabitha Squires does not stop trying to make Belle a laughing stock, then she'll just run her over in the Peddler's cart. The upshot is that Ned, Eduardo and Professor Argyle are the same person during separate parts of their lives.
Book Six.
The Book of Immortality Synopsis
Having won the affections of the charming Ned, Belle Joy believes it to be a congenial idea to bring him home. Leaving Edenvale behind, Belle introduces her soul mate to her family, with the expectation that Christmas will be quite a small, peaceful affair. However, introducing Ned into her home has the opposite effect as he brings with him a Book that shapes the destiny of her entire home, and challenges the identity of the closest of people.
However, Rupert Gvist, a supposed evil stranger from Ned's past, also turns up unannounced in search of The Book of Immortality which has been in Ned's possession for years. Rupert appears sly and conniving, yet perhaps his dark side is hiding something else?
During the Christmas Fayre, Ned vanishes, and Belle and her brother William realize their parallel universe, Anouka, has opened up again with Ned as its hub.
Unassuming, as always, Mr and Mrs Joy glance over their children's strange antics and their elusive guest, and their parentage becomes less than innocent during which time The Book of Immortality becomes the desire of each and every human and beast, in the hope that its presence will save both worlds from a supposed Armageddon if Mrs Joy does not control Stickety-Stick and her novice approach to witchery. Mrs Joy does manage to control Stickety-Stick and her novice approach to witchery and it is this wayward affair which makes peace with not only her nuclear family but also her jealous dragon sister.
Book Seven.
The Grass Isn't Always Greener Synopsis
The Grass Isn't Always Greener allows Hetty Argyle, a flighty, resilient, and mildly disobedient child, to realise relations between herself and her family are twofold, at least.
When Hetty Argyle is harshly forbidden to entertain the idea of a supposed imaginary friend, the lives of her entire family could be thrown into jeopardy, that is, before, perhaps this imaginary friend proves essential to her existence? Will Svetlana Zancks be allowed to lead Hetty, and her less than intellectual, rather bearish brother, Drew, back into Anouka to prevent doom, or is the tie with Anouka this time too dangerous to be attempted? Hetty's parents are far from amused at the battle they entertain, constantly, with their daughter at the hands of some whimsical notion. However, Mrs Argyle's secrecy proves more than mere forgetfulness, and Hetty realises her mother is far more a part of Anouka than Hetty could ever have imagined. As for Hetty's father, she cannot believe his simple nature over the years has been a host of cover-ups.
Bumblings with Mr Kroon, an alleged old gardener; Loic Kroon, an over-protected little boy; Varquis, a lost soul; beastly frogs; The Book of Immor-whattity; Centaur Cavalry; and Uzmortikus, The Great proves to open up a chapter in Hetty's life that seems far too implausible to be true ~ especially when she comes face to face with her alter-ego, Henrietta.
The allure this supposed parallel universe, Anouka, presents indulges the inquisitive Hetty, and as she grows to understand that perhaps she is the hub to create destiny, her quintessence and alter-ego grow stronger, and she is compelled even further to understand, to believe in, and to ultimately rewrite the existence of Anouka.
