‘Inventive and gripping… Paver is creating a contemporary children’s fantasy classic!’
The Lady
‘A gloriously absorbing story of courage and mystery’
The Times
The Outsiders
“Paver is creating a contemporary children’s fantasy classic” – The Lady
From a time of myths and ancient magic comes a tale of gods and warriors – and the rise of a hero…
Hylas is only a boy but he knows three things:
The gods exist.
Magic is real.
Somebody wants him dead.
Hunted and alone, Hylas is desperate to find his missing sister. His quest takes him across the hostile mountains and treacherous seas of ancient Greece. His only friend is a girl on the run. His only guide is a wild dolphin.
And his murderous enemies are closing in…
The Outsiders is the first book in Michelle’s Gods & Warriors series.
Michelle's Notes
Before I was an author, I was an overworked lawyer, so every summer I used to escape for a week or two to a small Greek island. I’d rent a little cottage in the middle of nowhere, and be totally alone – no mobile phone, no car, no shops: I brought enough food with me, and lived on bread, cheese, thick Greek honey and yogurt.
I spent my days watching falcons on the cliffs, and walking in the hills, where the only other person was a solitary goatherd. He wore sandals made from scraps of old tires, and I only ever glimpsed him in the distance, although I often heard the bells of his goats among the olive trees.
When I was writing THE OUTSIDERS, I did lots of research exploring drowned caves and boar-haunted mountains, swimming with wild dolphins – but always I had with me the memories of those earlier visits to that little island: the goatbells in the hills, and the falcons wheeling over the cliffs…
