‘Very modern magic, hiding in plain sight’

A review of Cressida Cowell’s novel Which Way to Anywhere

Anew series by Cressida Cowell is always an event. Her How to Train Your Dragon books, about the escapades of a hapless young Viking called Hiccup, sold more than 10 million copies; The Wizards of Once stories, in which two children get into magical mishaps in a fantasia of ancient Britain, is being made into a Hollywood film. Can the former Children's Laureate pull it off again?

Unlike her previous fantasies, Which Way to Anywhere is set in the present day. “This is a story of a very modern magic that is not buried faraway in the darkness of the Bronze Ages nor in the shifting mists of the Viking past, but is hiding in plain sight.” But while the landscape has changed, Cowell has not. What follows is a rollercoaster, written with her familiar panache: “We're visiting Earth at a very bad moment, when one particular family has most unfortunately come to the notice of the most ruthless and imperious and dreadful minds in the Infinite Galaxies...”

The heroes of the story are K2 and Izzabird – twins whose father has disappeared in an episode of distinctly Cowellian intrigue: “He had been on a highly important and sightly mad mission to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench... and he never came back.” We pick up the plot some years later, when K2 and Izza, who still have “an ache in their hearts that felt like they had swallowed a stone”, have been taken to live in the countryside with their mother's new partner.

Unbeknown to their step-siblings Theo and Mabel, K2 has a supernatural power enabling him to draw maps of enchanted worlds. The arrival of a sinister supply teacher at their school sets our alarm bells ringing (“I am going to be your substitute geography teacher for the day,” smiled the stranger. “Because unfortunately Ms Foremichael had a little accident”); and when their baby sister Annipeck is kidnapped, the squabbling step-siblings must rely on K2's magical powers to guide them on their hair-raising rescue quest.

The story – illustrated with Cowell's familiar, scratchy sketches – has everything that her fans have come to expect. Characters evolve and surprise us; a dense plot swiftly unravels; and as with all the best fantasy, there is a skilled balance between humdrum drama and high thrills. The ending leaves plenty of scope for further trouble: is it really only K2 who has the most dangerous gift in the universe?

Cowell wrote the first lines “a long, long time ago, before I'd even started writing How to Train Your Dragon,” but the novel only came to life 25 years later, after the death of her father. “What do you write about when the person in your life who most inspired your stories is no longer there?” The result is a joyously anarchic story, which tackles childhood loss with real psychological acuity. And at the heart of this modern fantasy lies a very modern message: that those who appear to be worlds apart often have more in common than they assumed.

ACROSS

9 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, author (2,7) 10 Writing fluid derived from sepia, indigo etc (3)

11 A little iced cake or dainty; or, a distinctively coloured diamond (5)

13 A painting of a real, rather than imaginary, model; or, a biography (4)

14 A building, farm or room where milk is made into butter, cheese, etc. (5)

15 With “bouquet”, a tied bunch or cheesecloth sachet of herbs as the basis of Provençal cookery (5)

16 A dandy or a fop; or, a stag (4)

17 The rough uncut edge of a sheet of fine-quality handmade paper for printmaking or watercolours (6)

18 The sensation or perception of flavour (5)

20 The list or table of chapters or sections given at the front of a novel or other publication (8)

22 Old word for a pilgrim’s pouch, a satchel or a small bag; a writing (5)

24 A turtle’s flippers (7)

26 Planet whose name derives from the Germanic equivalent of “ground” or “soil” (5)

28 A type of hooped petticoat synonymous with the textile of horsehair and linen/wool (9)

30 Thespian’s role in a play; or, a division of a literary work or broadcast serial (4) 32 A criterion or standard; or, an author’s oeuvre (5) 34 Flowers related to sweet williams and carnations, such as the wild firewitch of Cheddar Gorge (5)

35 Cephalic region of the body synonymous with intellect and thought (4)

36 A daydreamer, rainbowchaser or wool-gatherer (9) 38 Pen name of the novelist Mary Ann Evans (5)

40 A body of helpers; or, an anticlockwise change in the wind (7)

41 Medieval pet form of the name “Robin” from which a word for a pony or one’s favourite pursuit derives (5) 43 Slow stately dances; or, bars of music (8)

45 A test or trial; or, factual evidence (5)

47 The lowest point of a wave in physics (6)

49 A shelf-like berth on a boat or ship (4)

51 A plant whose name was given to a pale pastel purplish colour (5)

52 A hut; or, a signal box (5) 53 An animal’s fur or pelt; a single application of paint or nail polish; a layer of a plant bulb; or, a long garment such as a redingote (4)

54 A plain or fruited cake for cream tea, known in Australia as a puftaloon (5) 55 Gold in alchemy; or, the tincture “or” in heraldry (3) 56 Afterwords concluding literary pieces (9)

DOWN

1 A pigeon squab; or, a wild boar piglet (8)

2 A violin played as a folk instrument (6)

3 Crystalline metamorphic rock with a sparkly lustre (6) 4 Playwright and prose stylist noted for his didactic romance written in a style that became known as “Euphuism” (4)

5 One of a series of tintinnabulating metal discs or zills around the edge of a tambourine (6)

6 Carriers on the roofs of cars for transporting snowboards/runners to the piste or slopes (3-5)

7 A literary word for a pledge of faith such as betrothal (8)

8 With a notable example involving Beau Brummell and the Prince Regent (later George IV), a deliberate rebuff or rebuke (4)

9 A jaunt in a motor vehicle; or, a shot from a golf tee (5) 12 Word for a light sailingvessel (5)

19 Each one of the faces/ surfaces of a gramophone record, sheet of paper (4) 21 Trips undertaken to accomplish necessary tasks; or, dialect for shopping (7) 22 20 grains in apothecaries’ weight (7)

23 The ends of magnets, designated either north or south (5)

24 Word whose earliest use to mean “hardship” came in

Shakespeare’s King Lear (5) 25 Metal whose idiomatic association with balloons pertains to something poorly received (4)

27 Plant named for its diaphanous seedpods known as “moons” (7)

29 Female counterparts of male billies or he-goats (7) 31 Onomatopoeic word for the plucked or pulled string of a bow or guitar (5)

32 A humorous round for typically three voices (5) 33 French word for grape pomace (4)

37 A farm’s tower/pit for storing grain (4)

39 Genre of film/novel characterised by sensation and suspense (8)

40 A mythical reptile synonymous with the heraldic cockatrice (8)

42 A group of readers who regularly meet to discuss literature (4,4)

44 Ornamental cases for cosmetics, needles etc (5) 45 Food preserved in brine, marinade or vinegar (6)

46 From the Latin for “something skilfully produced”, a word initially for a building, later cloth (6) 47 A competition in verse between two Provençal troubadours (6)

48 A balloon, flute, or other vessel for drinks (5)

50 Bind such as an Englishman’s tie (4)

52 A homophone of “queues” (4)

Solutions will be given next week. The last date for entries is Oct 11. The winner of this crossword will be announced on Oct 21. The winner of the Sep 23 crossword is Mathias Lobo