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The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Brief Description
'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there… James is fed up. His family has moved...
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The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
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'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian
An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction.
The spinetingling classic middle grade ghost story, with a new look for 2025
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Description
'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian
An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction.
Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there…
James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage – with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing – and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. But it's not him who's writing strange things on shopping lists and fences. It's not him who smashes bottles and pours tea in the Vicar's lap. It's a ghost – honestly. Thomas Kempe, the 17th-century apothecary, has returned and he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It's up to James to get rid of him. Or he'll have no pocket money or pudding ever again.
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe is a timeless thriller, with a ghostly mystery and all the fun and mischief of being nine years old. Perfect for fans of Eva Ibbotson, Tom’s Midnight Garden and Helen Cresswell’s Moondial.
Series: HarperCollins Children’s Classics
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The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
'A mischievous boy hero and an equally amusing ghoul,’ Guardian An iconic ghost story for children from Penelope Lively, one of the modern greats of British fiction. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there… James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage – with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees...Paperback$1999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780008772819
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 September 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Farshore
Audience: Children
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 16.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 180g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Penelope Lively spent her early childhood in Egypt before coming to England aged twelve. She is an award-winning writer for adults and children, with prizes including the Booker, Whitbread and Carnegie to her name. We are delighted to be publishing A STITCH IN TIME on the Essential Modern Classics list.
Also by Penelope Lively
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A Stitch in Time
Maria is always getting lost in the secret world of her imagination… A ghostly mystery and winner of the Whitbread Award, A Stitch in Time is republished in the Collins Modern Classics range. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But whilst on holiday she begins to...Paperback$1699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Life in the Garden
Life in the Garden is a memoir of the author's life in gardens and an exploration of gardens in literature. Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This book is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens—the large garden at home in Cairo where she spent most of her childhood, her grandmother's garden in a sloping Somerset...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Moon Tiger
First time in Modern Classics Claudia Hampton, a beautiful, famous writer, lies dying in hospital. But, as the nurses tend to her with quiet condescension, she is plotting her greatest work—a history of the world ... and in the process, my own. Gradually she re-creates the rich mosaic of her life and times, conjuring up those she has known. There...Paperback$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Moon Tiger
A stylish reissue of the Booker Prize-winning, Golden Booker Prize-shortlisted classic—now with a new introduction by Elif Shafak. Claudia Hampton—beautiful, famous, independent, dying. But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a 'history of the world... and in the process, my own'. And it is her story from a childhood just after the First...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Ammonites and Leaping Fish
Now with a new chapter, On Being Ninety—a memoir of ageing, memory, and time, written by one of the twentieth century's greatest writers at the age of eighty. 'The twentieth century shook the world—it sobers me to have been one of those to see it through.' In this powerful and compelling 'view from old age', Penelope Lively, at eighty, reports...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Pre-orderA Stitch in Time
A rediscovered children's classic, winner of the 1976 Whitbread Award, from the Booker Prize and Carnegie Medal-winning author of Moon Tiger and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Maria likes to be alone with her thoughts. She talks to animals and objects, and generally prefers them to people. But whilst on holiday she begins to hear things that aren’t there –...Paperback$1999Unit price /UnavailableOut 2 Sep 2026Pre-order -
The Photograph
A gorgeous novel by the Booker-winning author, now a Penguin Essential. Searching through a little-used cupboard at home, Glyn Peters chances upon a photograph he has never seen before. Taken in high summer, many years earlier, it shows his wife, Kath, holding hands with another man. Glyn's work as a historian should have inured him to unexpected findings and reversals,...PaperbackSold Out -
Metamorphosis
An exquisite selection of the best short stories from one of our best-loved writers. Wry, compassionate, and glittering with wit, Penelope Lively's stories get beneath the everyday to the beating heart of human experience. In intimate stories of growing up and growing old, chance encounters and life-long relationships, Lively explores with keen insight the ways that individuals can become tangled...PaperbackSold Out -
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The Road To Lichfield
The Road to Lichfield, the Booker Prize shortlisted first novel by Penelope Lively, is now available for the first time as a Penguin Essential. Ann Linton leaves her family in Berkshire and sets up camp in her father's house when he is taken into a nursing home in distant Lichfield. As she shares his last weeks, she meets David Fielding,...PaperbackSold Out
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