Blood dripped from Lizzy’s hands into the snow. Her mother’s blood.
   “Mum!” she cried, pleading, clutching her body close, willing her
not to die.
   “Lizzy!” her mother whispered. Her eyes wide open in terror,
gazing at something …
   Lizzy turned.
   But there was nothing. Just the glimmering dome of Shalimar, the
frozen moors beyond and, hanging high in the ice-clear sky, the full
moon.

Lizzy Abercrombie is haunted by the tragedy of her mother's accidental death on the full moon. And worse, the feisty fourteen-year-old suspects that it wasn't an accident, after all, but the outcome of a terrible family curse related to the mystical Moonstone from India.

Determined to solve the mystery of the Moonstone, Lizzy embarks on a spine-tingling quest that takes her from Shalimar, an exotic mansion high on the Yorkshire Moors, to the ancient Somnath Temple in India. With her is her new friend Ravi Chandra, the most popular boy at school. Together they sidestep Lizzy's cousins - the scheming Sams - to uncover the shocking truth about her ancestor Uncle George and recover the stolen Moonstone that has doomed a whole generation of Abercrombies.

As Lizzie rides her way into a Bollywood movie, gets trapped in a sacred cave, and encounters a ruthless enemy on the dark Yorkshire moors, she realizes that she is no longer involved in just an adventure but a race to save her life.

Why is famous writer Shankar Pujari ready to kill for the Moonstone? Who will recover the Moonstone on that coming full-moon night? And will Lizzy survive its terrible curse?

Download the first four chapters here                       

 

BREAKING NEWS!

We're thrilled to announce that The Moonstone Legacy will be published by Hachette India in October 2011. The exciting cover for that edition is shown above.

The quote on the front is by William Dalrymple, the doyen of travel writers and resident of Delhi. Hachette are making the book a lead title, so it should make quite a stir when it comes out there . . .

AND . . .

Kala Sangham, the foremost South Asian arts organisation in the UK, are hosting a special event to celebrate the launch of the Indian edition of The Moonstone Legacy. Dr Raj Persaud will be chairing the event on Friday October 21st with live music, South Asian dance and a Q & A with Diana de Gunzburg and Tony Wild. Details at http://www.kalasangam.org/

ALSO . . .

Amitabh Bachchan, the most famous Bollywoood star, has made a series of TV advertisements, two of which feature the principal Indian locations of The Moonstone Legacy, the Temple of the Moon at Somnath, and the lions of Gir National Forest, both in Gujarat. View it below, or visit the youtube page. © Gujarat Tourism

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tony Wild is a scion of the Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate dynasty, makers of Yorkshire Tea. He was a director of the company but gave up to write full time. He has always been fascinated by the relationship between the British and India and explored the subcontinent as a young man. He wrote two popular histories published by Harper Collins – The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600 and Remains of the Raj, which Jan Morris nominated as her book of the year. He is a former actor, filmmaker and screenwriter and this is his first novel.

Diana de Gunzburg was born in Pakistan and is Anglo-Russian-Afghan. Her great-grandfather was the last man to be publically hanged in British India for making war on the Crown. Diana was brought up between the North West Frontier - where her father still farms his estate - and her mother's native Yorkshire. By the age of seventeen she had already made the 6000-mile journey overland between the two countries three times. She has recently published articles about her family history in Alef magazine and Afghan Scene. She lives with her husband and teenage daughter in Paris where she teaches yoga. This is her first book.