Like all books of my personal dream-team Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell, this was just lovely!!!

The brilliant illustrations do not need any comment! The story was on the one hand very simple, on the other hand made really complicated by introducing a new person at almost every chapter.

The characters themselves are ingeniously thought out – which child wouldn’t love young orphan Hugo Pepper, his reindeer herder parents Harvi and Sarvi Runter-Tun-Tun, the tiny fluffy snow giants, the mysterious gloomy lamplighter, the landlubber mermaids Daisy and Lilly Neptune, the adventorous Wilfred McPherson, the notorious piratess Brimstone Kate, the mechanical wizard Edward Evesham, the flying carpet restorers Meena Dalle and Tik-Tik, the creative tea-blenders Diego Camomile and Freda Mangerlaine, the far-flung explorers Phineas and Phyllida Pepper and one-eared ships cat Treacle!?
Which child wouldn’t hate butcher boy Elliot de Mille and yellow alley cats loving Cressida Claw with all his heart, rejoicing in a hard-fought happy end?!