In the start of an original fantasy series, Genevieve Cogman, the author of the bestselling The Invisible Library, welcomes you to Graynes, a magical school for demon-summoning. This is St Trinian’s meets the legend of Faust.

Philomela once enjoyed the carefree life of a Cambridge Classics PhD - until her father’s gambling debts forced her to trade prestigious academia for a job on the windswept Yorkshire Moors.

Graynes, an isolated all-girls school, offers a quiet - if terribly damp - lifeline. As the new Latin mistress, Phil expects nothing more taxing than dreary weather and making dead languages interesting. Instead, she finds unsettlingly eccentric staff, frankly terrifying schoolgirl pranks . . . and a demonic summoning circle in the cellar.

For Graynes, it turns out, is no ordinary school. But the training ground for the Queen’s elite demonologists.

Guarding the realm from the forces of hell was certainly not on the job description. But as Phil is plunged into a world of dark arts, talking familiars (and many custard creams), she uncovers a sinister plot that threatens not just the school, but the fate of England itself . . .

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Praise for Genevieve Cogman:

‘Cogman writes with beauty and wit’ – T. L. Huchu, author of the Edinburgh Nights series

‘Smart, swashbuckling joy’ – H. G. Parry, author of The Magician's Daughter

‘A breath of fresh air’ – The Guardian