Wormwood Gate Katherine Farmar 9781908195241

Aisling and Julie are bickering on a night out when they are almost run over by a white horse with a red mane. Something strange is going on. The city of Dublin looks changed. Bits of it are familiar, but three castles blaze on the horizon, the pigeons and seagulls are at war with one another and a talking door-knocker leads them to a floating head - they're definitely a long way from home. When they discover that the city has three queens, all fighting for power, and that strict rules have been imposed on its residents, they decide it's time to get out of there, and fast.

Can Julie and Aisling find the Wormwood Gate and get back to Mortal Realms? And, despite their differences, could it be possible that they like each other more than they first thought? This urban fantasy debut with a shining sense of humour and a subtle love story sparkles with all the beauty and strangeness of Alice in Wonderland

Katherine Farmar was born and raised in Dublin and has lived there all her life, except for a year spent studying philosophy in Edinburgh. She has written reviews for the Irish Times, the TLS, and Strange Horizons, and also works in theatre. She has pretended to be Annie Graves (a lot of children's writers do this) and in that guise she wrote A Dog's Breakfast, but Wormwood Gate, for older children and young teenagers is her first kids' book written under her own name.