Yet Rick, Roxy and Tiago’s strangeness and unfamiliarity with modern life has an explanation: they are undercover ‘feygents’ sent by King Oberon and Commander Morgan le Fey to investigate a series of ‘major magic malfunctions’ which threaten the realm of Avalon. In the first of Julia Golding’s newest and most ambitious series of fantasy adventure novels, Young Knights of the Round Table (2013), three teenage foster-children settle uncomfortably into their new school in Oxford, beset by bullies with ‘stomach-churning habits’. She lives in Oxford and has three children. Writing as Eve Edwards, Julia Golding has also published a series of ‘teen historical romance’ novels, and, as Joss Stirling, ‘teen dark romance’. She has written four further children's novels, The Ship Between the Worlds (2007), Wolf Cry (2009), The Silver Sea (2010) and Mel Foster and the Demon Butler (2015).

It continues with Pendragon (2013) and Merlin (2014). Her series of fantasy adventure novels, Young Knights of the Round Table (2013), set in Oxford and Avalon, features schoolchildren battling dark forces with Arthurian legendary figures. The Darcie Lock ‘Girl on the Run’ series began with Ringmaster (2007), followed by Empty Quarter (2008) and Deadlock (2010). The ‘Companions’ series continues with Water Thief (2011), in which George, the youngest universal, is assisted by the rudest goblin in existence.

Her 'Companions' series, a fantasy series with a cast of mythical creatures, comprises of: Secret of the Sirens (2006) The Gorgon's Gaze (2006) Mines of the Minotaur (2007) and The Chimera's Curse (2007). The sixth book in the series, Cat's Cradle, is due to be published in 2009. Further books in this series are: Cat Among the Pigeons (2006) Den of Thieves (2007) Cat o Nine Tails (2007): and Black Heart of Jamaica (2008).

It won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, and the Nestlé Children's Book Prize in 2006, and was also shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award. Her first book, The Diamond of Drury Lane (2006), is the first in a series of 'Cat Royal' books, about the adventures of an orphan girl brought up in a theatre in Georgian London. She worked for Oxfam, lobbying on conflict issues, before becoming a full-time writer. She studied English at Cambridge University, then joined the Foreign Office and worked in Poland, before returning to Oxford University to study for a doctorate in literature of the romantic period.

Julia Golding was born in 1969 and grew up near Epping Forest.

The glass swallow by julia golding