The Winter of Enchantment
Victoria Walker
Out of print for thirty years and incredibly difficult to get hold of, The Winter of Enchantment is an iconic and elusive book written by the author when she was just 21. It tells the story of Sebastian who travels back from his Victorian world to a magical world of Melissa, Mantari and the wicked Enchanter. The reissue of this book has been clamoured for by many, including writers such as Garth Nix and Neil Gaiman. The sequel, The House Called Hadlows, will be published next year.
Preview of Chapter 1.
Available now: Ordering Information.

The House Called Hadlows
Victoria Walker
Sebastian and Melissa would never forget their arrival at the house called Hadlows. The long drive through the neglected park and woodland, the lake glimpsed through the trees, the massive house, with its 'thousand windows' looking down on them, the half-open front door and the great hall, empty but for the pale-faced portraits covering the walls. Hadlows held a secret, of that they were sure, in spite of the warm welcome they were given by Uncle Bertram and Aunt Augusta.
Preview of Chapter 1.
Available now: Ordering Information.

Victoria Walker’s first book, The Winter of Enchantment, was published in 1969 when she was just 21. The House Called Hadlows followed in 1972. Both were popular, but there was no third book as Victoria decided to go to Cambridge as a mature student to read English. She married upon graduating and spent the next couple of decades living happily in the country with her husband, children, garden and animals. Eventually, she returned to writing, but this time for adults and her first novel Out Of Love, written under her married name of Victoria Clayton, was published by Orion in 1997, to be followed by several more.

This is what Victoria has said about how she became a writer:

"Thirty-five years ago, when I was twenty-one, I was idling away time at my parents’ house in the country, wondering what to do next. I had been living in London and taking music lessons and it had dawned at last that I had no musical talent whatsoever. So with no particular end in view I found my mother’s portable typewriter and wrote a story for children. Of course I wrote it for myself, really. I may have looked grownup - a heavy Juliette Greco fringe, so much eyeliner that my father complained that it was like looking down the barrels of the guns of Navarone over breakfast, reeking of Shalimar and French cigarettes (rolled in papier mais for super sophistication) - but I was extraordinarily naive. It simply never occurred to me to get a job or to think of a career. Instead I spent eight months, off and on, writing this story just as it came into my head, sentence by sentence, with no idea of how it would finish or what I would do with it when it had."

"One evening I went out to dinner with a friend in London. In the late Sixties the Bistro D’Agran - I’m not sure how you spell that - was a well-known Hooray Henry haunt behind Harrods. It was unlicensed so customers had to bring their own bottles of wine. I can’t remember who the friend was but at the table next to us were two men who asked to borrow our corkscrew. During the conversation that followed one of the men revealed that he was a publisher. Without a blush I told him that I was within days of finishing a manuscript. It did not occur to me that he might be constantly bothered by people asking him to look at unsolicited manuscripts. Generously he said I could send it to him for appraisal. I did. A few weeks later, during which I had heard nothing and had practically forgotten about it, he sent me a contract. That was Bill McCreadie of Rupert Hart-Davis (now of Aurum Press) and the story came to be called The Winter of Enchantment."

Excerpt from May 2004 Ibooknet Newsletter – Ibooknet is the Independent Booksellers’ Network – over 50 booksellers with over half a million rare and collectable books on-line.

Victoria Walker

The Winter of Enchantment
The House Called Hadlows

Vitoria Clayton

Out of Love
Dance with Me
Running Wild
Past Mischief
Clouds Among the Stars
Moonshine
A Girl's Guide to Kissing Frogs

Victoria Clayton's website contains features written by her, short stories, and reviews of her more recent books.

The December 2006 issue of SFX magazine contained an interview with Victoria about her early writing career.