This is the first in the ‘Bunkle’ series about the de Salis family, in which we meet Jill, Robin and Bunkle, so named by his brother and sister because they say he talks such a lot of bunk. They are having an average sort of holiday: Bunkle is infuriating his older siblings, and the most important thing any of them have to think about is the hotel tennis tournament.  Then their mother is called away, their governess is taken ill and they find an injured British Secret Service Agent in the hotel, who charges them with taking top secret papers to their father who is also in the Intelligence Service.

There follows a race across France and Switzerland, helped by Dick and Jean Fraser, who first appeared in The Far Island, and together they overcome all sorts of obstacles in their mission to deliver the secret documents.

I love this book – it was where I first encountered the completely unsquashable Bunkle and I immediately wanted to add these books to our list. I hope you’ll enjoy it too. Its official publication date is the 10th October but we will have copies from the 1st October so if you would like to pre-order you can do so here.