When both of Eddie Dickens's parents catch a disease that makes them turn yellow, go a bit crinkly round the edges and smell of hot water bottles, it's agreed he should go and stay with relatives at their house Awful End.

Unfortunately for Eddie, those relatives are Mad Uncle Jack and Even-Madder Aunt Maud, and it doesn't look as if the three of them are ever going to reach their destination . . . Set in a 19th-century world of blotchy skin, runaway orphans, and a stuffed stoat called Malcolm, this wonderfully ridiculous adventure story was Philip Ardagh's first full-length work of fiction and provides pure entertainment for children aged 8-80. Also available on Faber Penguin Audiobooks.