Celia Rees is an English author of children's literature, including some horror and fantasy books. She was born in 1949 in Solihull, West Midlands but now lives in Leamington Spa with her husband and teenage daughter. Rees attended University of Warwick and earned a degree in History of Politics. After university, she taught English in Coventry secondary schools for seventeen years, during which time she began to write. During her time in teaching she asked several of her pupils why they would not read the books they were given and what they wanted to read about. The pupils said that they... wanted books with action, horror, danger, magic and pirates. All of these are main themes in Rees' books. The series was repackaged in 2002 with the six books being combined to make a trilogie: two old books per new one. These were published using the new titles City of Shadows, A Trap in Time and The Host Rides Out. In the seventeenth century, a girl named Mary Newbury discovered the cruelty of other people when her grandmother has been hanged. This was because Mary's grandmother was accused of being a witch.
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