Product Description

Previously published as GIDEON THE CUTPURSE

1763

Gideon Seymour, thief and gentleman, hides from the villainous Tar Man. Suddenly the sky peels away like fabric and from the gaping hole fall two curious-looking children. Peter Schock and Kate Dyer have fallen straight from the twenty-first century, thanks to an experiment with an antigravity machine. Before Gideon and the children have a chance to gather their wits, the Tar Man takes off with the machine -- and Peter and Kate's only chance of getting home. Soon Gideon, Peter, and Kate are swept into a journey through eighteenth-century London and form a bond that, they hope, will stand strong in the face of unfathomable treachery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42161 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416915263
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Linda Buckley-Archer is the author of the critically acclaimed Gideon trilogy.  Originally trained as a linguist, she is now a full-time novelist and scriptwriter.  She has written a television drama for the BBC and several radio dramas, as well as various journalistic pieces for papers like the Independent.  The Gideon Trilogy was inspired by the criminal underworld of eighteenth-century London.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Kate was unconscious for barely thirty seconds. When she came round, her face was drawn and her skin was white as paper. She felt sick and weak and all she wanted to do was close her eyes and escape from a reality that she was not ready to face -- at least not just yet. Gideon carried Kate to a shady spot well away from the road and laid her gently on the grass. He took a shirt from his bag and folded it into a pillow for Kate's head. Then he gave his water bottle to Peter, saying, "Stay with her. We are close to Baslow Hall, Colonel Byng's house; I shall fetch a horse and will return as soon as I am able."

Peter took the bottle like a sleepwalker. His world had temporarily flicked out of focus, and he was quite happy for it to remain that way.

"Peter," said Gideon, putting a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "Where have you come from?"

Peter looked up at him and realized he was going to have to decide whether to tell Gideon the truth. Could he trust him? He decided to follow his instincts.

"If this...is really...1763," Peter said in a halting voice, "then everyone I know is living hundreds of years in the future. Kate and I come from the twenty-first century. I don't understand how we got here. And I don't see how we can get back. I..."

Peter couldn't find the words to say anything else. He suddenly felt desperate.

Gideon's face did not betray what he was thinking. He nodded slowly and paced up and down for a couple of minutes before answering him.

"I mean no disrespect when I say that I can scarce believe that what you have told me is true, and yet...my heart tells me that you are not lying. Fate put me in that hawthorn bush to witness your arrival, and I promise you that I will do what I can to help restore you and Mistress Kate to your families."

Peter felt a surge of relief and gratitude welling up inside him. Tears pricked at his eyelids. "Thank you," he replied finally. "I'm not lying to you, Gideon -- I don't understand how any of this happened, but I swear to you I'm not lying."

Peter watched Gideon stride away to Baslow Hall. He set to wondering if his mother, so far away in California, had been told that her son was missing and what she would do. He had not seen her for nearly two months. Would she drop everything, tell the film studio that they would have to do without her, and get on a plane? Would she miss him if he got permanently stuck in 1763? Then it occurred to him that if he'd had a father who kept his promises, he wouldn't be in this situation now.

The shadows were lengthening by the time Kate heaved herself up on her elbows and helped herself to some water.

"Are you okay?" asked Peter. Kate nodded.

"Lost in time," she said after a while. "Why couldn't I see it before? Everyone in fancy dress and speaking funny."

"I thought that's how people spoke in Derbyshire," said Peter with a grin.

"Watch it," said Kate. "And before you ask, my dad and Dr. Williamson at the lab are not trying to invent time travel. That only happens in stories. They're studying how gravity actually works."

"Will," corrected Peter. "They will study how gravity works."

An air of unreality descended on them while they sat in the warm, still air, waiting for Gideon. Peter sat obsessively folding and unfolding a slip of paper that he had found in his anorak pocket.

"You're like Sam; you're a right fidget!" snapped Kate, irritated. "What is it anyway?"

Peter unrolled the grubby scrap of paper and read, "Christmas homework. To be handed in to Mr. Carmichael on January eighth. Write five hundred words on: My Ideal Holiday."

They both burst out laughing but soon fell silent. Chance had thrown Peter and Kate together, and whether they liked it or not, each was now a key person in the other's life. But, of course, they had known each other for less than a day and a half, and neither had yet earned the other's trust.

After a while Peter said, "You know, it's got to be something to do with that machine thing that Gideon told us about. It might not be a time machine, but it's all we've got to go on. We're going to have to find the Tar Man, aren't we?"

"I don't know," Kate replied. "Maybe it would be better to wait here.... My dad will work out what happened. I know he will. He won't stop until he's found us."

Peter did not feel quite so optimistic about Dr. Dyer's ability to travel back through time. But he also felt a pang of jealousy -- he wished the feelings he had about his own dad were less complicated.

"I didn't blur when I fainted, did I?" asked Kate.

"No, you didn't, why?"

"Just checking."

Gideon arrived not on horseback but sitting in an open carriage drawn by two glossy chestnut mares. Beside him sat a pretty, plump young woman in a severe black-and-white dress. She was perhaps twenty years old and she was balancing a basket covered with a muslin cloth on her knee. Golden curls escaped from beneath a cotton bonnet and tumbled over her rosy cheeks. The driver sat perched high up on a box seat. He held his back as straight as a soldier on parade and wielded a whip, which he cracked over the horses' heads as they strained up the steep track.

When they came to a halt, Gideon helped the young woman out of the carriage. They hurried toward the children. The woman dropped a neat curtsy in Peter and Kate's direction.

"This is Hannah," announced Gideon. "Mrs. Byng's personal maid. She has brought you refreshments and a cloak each to cover your barbaric garb." Then he raised his voice, and fixing them with his dark blue eyes, he spoke slowly and very pointedly to Peter and Kate.

"I have spoken to Mrs. Byng of your traveling to England from foreign parts and of your terrible encounter with an armed highwayman in Dovedale who made off with all your clothes and possessions. I have also enlightened Mrs. Byng as to your intention of traveling to London. I explained how you became separated from your uncle, who has doubtless made his way to Covent Garden, where he has urgent business."

"Yes, that's right," said Peter in such a stilted voice that Gideon had to turn away to hide his smile. "A terrible highwayman stole all our clothes in Dovedale."

"You poor, wretched children," said Hannah sympathetically. "Mr. Seymour told me that you were forced to wear whatever you could lay your hands on, yet I do declare I have never set eyes on a more outlandish getup. Why, a person would be ashamed to be seen in such clothes in respectable company. But, Mistress Kate, you are not well. Let me help you to the carriage. Here, give me your arm and lean on me."

Kate did what she was told and looked over her shoulder quizzically at Gideon and Peter as she was maneuvered into the coach. Gideon leaned over and whispered in Peter's ear. "I do not think it wise to be open about your predicament. I fear that half the world will think you mad and the other half that you have been bewitched."

Tucked up in woollen cloaks, and swayed by the motion of the coach, Peter and Kate listened to the groaning of wooden axles and the rhythmic clop, clop, clop of the horses' hooves. The wild Derbyshire landscape, mellow in the setting sun, seemed to glide by. Hannah's basket, stuffed with hunks of bread, salty white cheese, and roast chicken, easily satisfied the children's ravenous appetites, although Hannah seemed to regard it as a small snack. She wanted to know if the highwayman could have been Ned Porter and if he was handsome. Thinking of the Tar Man, Peter told her that he was as ugly as a pig, with a big nose and greasy black hair, and that he stank. Hannah seemed very disappointed.

Peter heard Kate's sudden intake of breath and felt her hand on his arm as the broad stone facade of Baslow Hall came into view. Symmetrical and well proportioned in the same way that good doll's houses always are, the mansion was an impressive sight in the setting sun. The long curved drive cut through a great park, well stocked with stately elms and home to perhaps a thousand sheep.

"This is my school!" she exclaimed softly into Peter's ear. "This is where I go to school! I can't believe it!"

The coach crunched to a standstill in front of a flight of steps leading to a pair of imposing gilded doors. "Wow," said Kate to Peter under her breath. "It doesn't look this good now."

"It won't look this good," corrected Peter.

"You will get very annoying if you carry on like that," she whispered back.

As they all clambered down from the carriage, a small blond-haired boy in a velvet suit came careering around the corner of the house and skidded to a halt on the gravel of the drive. His mouth opened into a small O shape of surprise, and he let the misshapen leather ball he had been chasing roll toward Peter and Kate.

"We have visitors, Master Jack," Hannah called out. "Will you come and bid them welcome?"

The little fellow stood and stared at the strangers and began to walk backward, retracing his steps behind the corner.

"Hello," said Kate, kneeling down so that she was at the same height. "My name's Kate and this is Peter."

Peter walked toward the child's ball.

"Can I borrow your ball for a moment?"

He threw off his cloak, picked up the ball, and carefully placed it on the top of his right foot. Holding out his arms for balance, Peter kicked the ball to eye level then kept it in the air for a couple of minutes or more, first with his foot, then with his knee, and then he finally flicked the ball behind him, bent forward with his arms outstretched, and caught it deftly on the back of his neck. Master Jack was rooted to the spot, entranced; he had never seen such skill with a ball before. Kate was impressed too, although she couldn't quite bring herself to say so.

Jack ran forward and snatched the ball from Peter's neck.

"I like your game," he said. "I want to play it now." He smiled up at Peter, and dimples appeared in his chubby cheeks. Then his attention ...

Customer Reviews

Same as Gideon the Cutpurse
This is a very good book for both 10-15 years olds and adults who enjoy historical fiction. Well written with entertaining, fresh characters and a fast pace. However, it is the same book as the hardcover "Gideon the Cutpurse". I think the title and the style of the hardcover did not appeal to younger readers so it has been repackaged and retitled for paperback. Do not get confused that this is the second book in the proposed Gideon Trilogy as a few reviewers apparently did. Look closely at the cover of this book and it says "previously published as Gideon the Cutpurse". Also at the end of the hardcover version of this book it says the second of the trilogy will be called "The Tar Man", it is not, so this has apparently been changed as well. Still highly recommended however.

Love it!
I bought this book for my eleven year old son to take on our trip to Finland and Russia. For a good bit of the trip his nose was stuck in his Nintendo DS. My thirtee year old daughter however, finished the books she brought on day three of the trip. While brother was at the hockey game in Helsinki with dad, she picked up this book. She read for about 20 minutes and was hooked. She loved the story line and the jumping back and forth between the time periods. For the rest of the trip the book bounced back and forth between my two and provided great entertainment. Highly recommend!

Great Kids Fiction & Educational Too!
I bought this book for my 11 year old son for Christmas, but couldn't put it down until I finshed it late last night!

This book is about two 12 year old English children, Kate and Peter, who accidentally get sent back in time to the year 1763. It is a real page-turner, as the children are pursued by a variety of colorful and unsavory characters through the English countryside and into London.

I loved the way the author contrasts what life was really like during 1763 with our present day comforts. She details the smells, foods, sights, animals, odd words and customs of that time icredibly well. There are a wonderful assortment of characters including the Tar Man, Gideon the cut-purse, a group of footpads, the turnkey, the henchman and a boy with scrofula (tuberculosis - I just looked this up!). The dialog between the two main characters and their parents is also very contemporary and believable.

I just ordered the 2nd book in the trilogy, The Time Thief, so I can read it over the holidays and hope the final book is published soon. I recommend this really excellent historical fiction for kids and adults.