Cogheart Adventures Series (Vol 1-4) 4 Books Collection Set by Peter Bunzl

Product Information

A: It's an action adventure with heart. You've got airships and battles and dangers, alongside characters who learn who they really area as the adventure develops. A: I needed something that would act as a bit of a red herring for the action but I also wanted there to be something of import in the box. What is inside the box helps Lily to learn more about her past. Q: This is your third Cogheart book, do you enjoy revisiting the world? How do you go about thinking of new adventures for your lead characters, Lily, Robert and Malkin, or did you have these planned out when you began the Cogheart series?

COGHEART is a full-throttle adventure story by PETER BUNZL, set in a deftly-realised Victorian world of 'mechanical' servants and pets, where steam-powered flying machines fill the skies. A: If I had a mechanimal it would have to be an animal that didn't exist in the real world, like a dragon. My mechanical dragon would do everything a fictional dragon can do; fly, breathe fire, hoard gold... Because why go for reality when you can have any creature you want? There's actually a video of a real mechanical dragon somewhere on youtube - I think it was made by the same people as the elephant.A: I do have one more adventure currently planned for Lily, Robert and Malkin. I can't really say anything about it at the moment because it's top secret. But maybe there's a little clue to something that happens in the story in the answer about where I would travel in an airship. Q: What is the most impressive man made machine you have seen, and did it help inspire Cogheart at the outset?

But on her birthday, Lily receives a mysterious gift and an even stranger invitation. The present is her dead mother’s notebook and journal. Lily has no idea how these came into the sender’s possession. A: Mrs Rust, the mechanical cook and housekeeper, is my favourite mechanical in the story. I love writing her little sayings like: 'cogs and chronometers!' and I think she would be great to have at home to look after you and to cook tea and give good advice. Q: During this adventure we meet a child who is a 'hybrid' and who can fly. If you could be part mechanical, what part(s) of you would you choose to be mechanical, or would you want to have built to give you special skills?A: I tried to write screen plays but that is quite technical and I found it a bit boring. I was taking classes in writing at the City Lit at the time I was writing Cogheart, which had begun as a screen play. I decided to write it as prose fiction instead. One of the advantages is that you don't need to worry whether something can be animated or not. A: As a child I was interested in telling stories and I wrote and illustrated stories for my family before moving on to producing my own comics. Then my mum bought me a book about animation and from that point I was really interested in how you brought stories to life. A: The idea that came first was the automatons or little machines. I was reading a history of automatons in the eighteenth century and how eighteenth century inventors were trying to bring these machines to life. There were lots of discussions at the time about these new machines, for example whether they would have a soul or not. So the whole idea of bringing machinery to life attracted me.

In May 2018, Bunzl was the Awesome Book Award winner for his book Cogheart that had won the early 2017 Dudley Teen Book Award too. Both Branford Boase Award and SCBWI Crystal Award have also shortlisted Cogheart whose other nominations include the 2017 editions of the Carnegie Medal, Waterstones Book Prize, and Kate Greenaway Award. The award-winning author of the Cogheart series, stirs up magic, myth and history in his truly captivating Barrington Stoke debut. Q: There is also a lot of exploration around ideas of identity, especially among the Victorian orphans in this book, and Lily's investigations about her mother's past. Why does this theme play such a big part in this story? First dated October 4, 2020; the serialized Cogheart Adventures’ third book is Skycircus whose translated titles include Himlacirkusen (Swedish), Atraksi Maut (Indonesian), and Podniebny (Polish).

Swept into the bright hustle and bustle of New York, Lily, Robert and Malkin discover shadowy secrets lie beneath its surface. For there are chilling goings-on in their hotel… A strange boy held captive, haunted by an undersea mystery; and a revengeful villain with a treacherous plan. A: Again, it is a subject that really interest me. The pigeon-holing of people according to their sex, race, sexuality, gender, temperament, character and abilities. The way society will try and iron out any quirks uniqueness in you and flatten you down to one thing - what they think you should be so you fit in. And that is no good because, the truth is, the things that make you an individual - the things that make you you - are the things that make you special. Revolted at what they see, Lily and her friends decide to rescue the hybrid teenagers, but they are caught by Slimwood, the circus owner, and Madame Lyons-Mane, the sinister ring mistress.

Chess prodigy Sophie Peshka inherited her love of the game from her grandmaster father. But now that he has been imprisoned in the dungeons of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg by powerful Empress Catherine the Great, Sophie must use all her strategic skill and cunning to help him escape. A: There is an theme park in France called Les Machines De L'Ile where they have all kinds of mechanical animals to ride on. I went there when I was researching the books. Accompanied by her two human friends, Robert and Tolley, and her mechanical fox, Lily visits Slimwood’s High Top. But the experience is far from fun.

Follow us

More than 150 years since Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was first published by Macmillan, revisit Carroll's amazing cast of characters in these brand-new stories, that will bring a new generation of readers to Wonderland. The award-winning author of Cogheart has a new story filled with early airplanes, brave aviators, and one big dragon! Out now with Barrington Stoke. Author Luke Palmer introduces his new book, Play (Firefly Press) about four boys growing up together, the challenges, the friendships, and what hap...