Piers Torday began his career in theatre and then television as a producer and writer. His first book for children, The Last Wild, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Award and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His second book, The Dark Wild, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. There May Be A Castle was a People's Book Award finalist and a Times Children's Book of the Year. The Lost Magician was a Book of the Year in six national newspapers and won the Teach Primary Book Award. The follow up, The Frozen Sea, was published in 2019. Piers has also completed an unfinished novel by his late father Paul (author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Death of an Owl) and adapted The Box of Delights and A Christmas Carol for the stage.
[a] bold and ambitious gothic fantasy. Its refusal to talk down to young readers while delivering a good old-fashioned highbrow quest might invite comparison with Philip Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy or Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell. But really Midnight Treasure feels like The Hobbit- with extra fangs and fur... The writing is terrific and Torday has a talent for cliff-hangers... Enchanting. * The Times * Midnight Treasure is a classy take on the vampire and werewolf genres that dives into the myths of Torday's Transylvanian heritage. * The Observer * [a] clever adventure... writerly and skilled. * The Sunday Times * Midnight Treasure is an epic fantasy adventure that will have readers gripped from the very first page. This is a story of trust, truth and what it means to be mortal. With stunning world building, unforgettable characters and a quest with the highest of stakes, this is story not to be missed. * Scope for Imagination *