The little cradle creaked on curved rockers, creak, creak on the flagstone floor; a tiny cradle of dark brown wood, with carved acorns on each of the corners of the square wooden hood. Figures in long dresses and white bonnets surrounded it. One of them turned her face to Jack. “Jack, please help us!”

Jack’s dream is frightening and confusing. It is so vivid that it seems almost true and he senses that it contains some sort of message for him.

Jack’s intuition is correct, and the cradle comes to play an important part in his life, for in mysterious ways it links him with the past – so much so that he begins to live in two worlds; his ordinary, everyday time and one in Eyam, an isolated village in Derbyshire in the year 1665.

As the story unfolds Jack learns his destiny. It seems he is the only one who can help.

The Naming of William Rutherford was short-listed for the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

“…a writer who knows how to weave plot, character, and major themes into a haunting, wonderful story. Ten out of ten…”
Weekend Telegraph