Gaslight Geezers: Part 1

By GARRY KILWORTH, Illustrator JOHN HOWE

The Right Honourable Montegu Sylver was sitting in his study sucking on a chibouque: a very long tobacco pipe which curved like a sabre down to its empty bowl. The pipe was empty because young Monty had never actually taken up smoking, but he had the habit of chewing on the pipe stem when he was in a thoughtful mood.

Tonight, in his flat above Breadoven Street, with the fog nosing at the window, he was deep in thought. His distant cousin, a weasel of few summers like himself, was up to his old tricks. Someone at the Jumping Jacks club had learned that Spindrick Sylver was planning to bomb Muggidrear city, the capital of Welkin. Spindrick was an anarchist and had been wrecking property from a very young age.'What was that sight for?'The weasel who had spoken was sitting at a card table playing stoatlitaire, an innocent game with the same scoring system as the notorious seed-dice gambling game, hollyhockers.

Publisher: Random House

Price: $16.95

Age group: 9 years plus