A press release from Rebecca Hearne of Hodder Children’s Books:

Hodder Children’s Books is thrilled to announce the acquisition of a new fiction series by Sunday Times Book of the Week author Charlie Fletcher. It will be linked to his million selling Stoneheart trilogy. The Stoneheart trilogy sold internationally to 21 countries.

Hodder Children’s Publishing Director Anne McNeil acquired world rights in all languages for the new series from Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown UK.

Anne McNeil comments: “When I read the opening chapter of Stoneheart in my office on the fifteenth floor a stone’s throw from St Pancras Station in London; I clearly heard the dragon wings beating at my window and saw its sneer. Six years later – to re-enter this world of statues and dragons, with a new sequence of shorter novels – is to be once again immersed in the most brilliantly imagined world. I’m delighted to be publishing The Dragon’s Shield and its follow-up novels by Charlie Fletcher.”

Charlie Fletcher comments: “I was at a great book festival in St. Malo when someone asked if the stories of Stoneheart were not too many to be told in only three books, and if the statues moved in London, why not in Paris, or Berlin? The answer to the first part of this question is “Yes!” and I’m very excited to have the chance to tell more of the story in three new books. The answer to the second part of the question will come when London can only survive by reaching out to a rival capital city to ask for help from one of its oldest, bravest enemies… a maid in shining golden armour.”

About the series:

This is a thrilling, action-packed new trilogy for children 9 + that will act as a gateway into the existing Stoneheart series. In the first book, The Dragon’s Shield, something dark has been woken in the British Museum, and it has stopped time, literally freezing the city in its tracks. The people are there, but unmoving, unseeing – like statues. The statues, on the other hand, can move, and are astonished at what they see. Two children in Great Ormond Street Hospital are the only ones not frozen: they witness a terrifying fight between a city dragon and a golden girl that has far-reaching consequences …

The first book will publish in March 2014 in the UK, with two other titles following.

About Charlie Fletcher:

Charlie Fletcher has worked in film editing for the BBC on everything from Drama to Current Affairs. He`s written screenplays for Tri-Star, MGM, Paramount and Warner Bros, among others. He continues to write for the movies, and also television. Charlie also moved into other types of writing including magazine features, a computer game and as both a national Sunday newspaper columnist and restaurant reviewer. Charlie’s most recent book, Far Rockaway, was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

About Hodder Children’s Books: Hodder Children’s Books is an imprint of Hachette Children’s Books, one of the UK’s largest trade publishing groups and has an excellent track record in creating bestselling and award-winning books for children of all ages and interests, including Young Welsh People’s Laureate Catherine Fisher, bestselling thriller author Robert Muchamore, and David Almond, twice winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book Award.