About this item
Survival is just the beginning in this action-packed middle grade adventure that's Mad Max for kids. Thirteen years ago, the world ended. A deadly chemical called Waste began to spread across the globe, leaving devastation in its wake. Millions died. Cities fell into chaos. Anything the Waste didn't kill, it mutated into threatening new forms.Kobi has always believed he and his dad were the only survivors. But when his dad goes missing, Kobi follows his trail - and discovers a conspiracy even deadlier than the Waste itself.Nonstop action, chilling dangers, and edge-of-your-seat twists make this gripping, fast-paced read perfect for young readers who love survival adventures like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet and dystopian series like Jeanne DuPrau's City of Ember.
About the Author
Michael Ford was born in the north of England in 1980. He read English and Classics at Worcester College, Oxford, and now works as an adult and children's fiction editor in London.
Q&A with Michael Ford
Author of The Poisoned House
Where/how did you come up with the idea for The Poisoned House?
The Poisoned House started with a character, Abigail, who is the lowest of the low in a Victorian house: an orphaned girl servant and practically a slave. Originally, I saw the book as a straightforward adventure and triumph-over-adversity story, and I wrote the first chapter quickly-- a foiled escape attempt. I had an idea of most of the book's characters as the archetypal servants who would be found in a well-off Victorian household--scullery maid, butler, footman, cook, parlour maid, housekeeper, etc. It was only later, after I saw Susan Hill's famous ghost story The Woman in Black on stage in London, that I introduced the next character--the ghostly presence. The ghost is an ally to Abigail, but a frightening one sometimes.
I've always loved ghost stories too, like Henry James' classic The Turn of the Screw, and short Victorian spine-tinglers by writers like MR James and JS Le Fanu. There's something about Victorian London, shrouded in smog, that just screams spookiness. The Victorian era played host to great advances in science and medicine, and where that met the Victorian obsession with death and spirituality, chilling stories emerged--like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. More recently, Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger and Michelle Paver's Dead Matter have shown there's a real vogue for historical ghostly tales.
How did you research your book?
Thankfully, at the time I was writing The Poisoned House, I lived in London, where the book is set. Reminders and resources about Victorian culture are everywhere in London. Above our heads, Victorian buildings tower, and below our feet, the system of sewers is one built by the Victorian engineer Joseph Bazalgette. I don't know anywhere else in the world where history is as messily layered as London. I did much of the writing of TPH in the Guildhall Library, which has a large reference section relating to the development of London since pre-Roman times. The Guildhall itself has been on its current site since Anglo-Saxon times, and parts of the current building date from the 15th century. It's built on the site of an old Roman amphitheatre.
I consulted numerous books on Victorian life. The journalist Henry Mayhew wrote an important series of studies called London Labour and the London Poor, in which he describes all of the different lowly characters one might come across in London, from mudlark (people who sifted through the filthy banks of the River Thames for any detritus of value) , to chimney-sweeps and chestnut-sellers. There are also very helpful materials online, such as the Dic
