Catweazle

Book excerpt: Catweazle is a magician from the eleventh century who had trouble making his spells work. One day, all that changed, thanks to a bad dream and the hooting of an owl, and some ferocious Norman soldiers. The magic Catweazle used that day was unlike any other: it worked. The only trouble was it sped him through the centuries into 1970s Britain. There, by good fortune, he befriended a farmer's son, Carrot, and began the process of adjusting - or not - to modern life. How Catweazle manages to deal with cars and telephones and electricity (or 'electrickery', as he calls it) made for hilarious viewing on the LWT TV series and wickedly funny reading in the Puffin novelisation. And here it is again, for older readers to rediscover and as a timeless treat for children today.