Fly by Night (49 page)

‘You need someone to look out for you, Mr Clent. You’re a rotten liar. Good liars lie only when they need to. ’Sides, if I left you with Saracen you’d just eat ’im.’

Mosca held out her hand for Saracen’s leash, and after a moment’s hesitation Clent gave it back to her, with a small but ceremonious bow.

Disclaimer

This is not a historical novel. It is a yarn. Although the Realm is based roughly on England at the start of the eighteenth century, I have taken appalling liberties with historical authenticity and, when I felt like it, the laws of physics.

‘A delightful historical fantasy about the power of books – with a thoroughly unexpected heroine. Sophisticated, funny and fresh; I loved it’ Meg Rosoff

‘Frances Hardinge’s phenomenally inventive
Fly By Night
is remarkable and captivating, masterfully written and with a wealth of unexpected ideas . . . Full of marvels’
Sunday Times

‘Mosca is, rather like Philip Pullman’s Lyra, a fierce black-eyed street survivor . . .
Fly By Night
is like delving into a box of sweets with a huge array of flavours’
TES

‘
Fly By Night
is a wonderful and wondrous novel, wholly original while following brilliantly in the footsteps of Joan Aiken, Leon Garfield and DianaWynne Jones. Frances Hardinge has joined the company of writers whose books I will always seek out and read’ Garth Nix

Author Biography

Frances Hardinge spent her childhood in a huge, isolated old house on a hilltop in Kent that ‘wuthered’ when the wind blew and inspired her to write strange, magical stories from an early age. After leaving school she read English at Oxford University.
Fly By Night
, her first novel to be published, was immediately snapped up in several countries and has been shortlisted for a number of awards. Frances lives in Oxford.

Also by Frances Hardinge

Gullstruck Island

Twilight Robbery

Acknowledgements

I would also like to thank the following people: Maureen Waller for her fascinating and colourful book,
1700: Scenes from London Life
, from which I learned about marriage houses, ‘a fair mark’ and countless other fascinating details of eighteenth-century life; the Duelling Association, for showing me a historical world full of wit, wickedness and panache; Colin Shaw of Roving Romania, who showed us around the wild countryside of that bruised and beautiful country, with its tiny shrines, name-day celebrations and ‘weddings of the dead’, and the denizens of Zehazel for all their support over the years.

First published 2005 by Macmillan Children’s Books

This edition published 2006 by Macmillan Children’s Books

This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-47716-1 EPUB

Copyright © Frances Hardinge 2005

The right of Frances Hardinge to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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