Product DescriptionAnn Pilling manages to combine fascinating historical detail with mysterious and compelling ghost stories, and THE BEGGAR'S CURSE is no exception. Here reissued with a stunning new cover by David Wyatt, in a new B format, it will attract a whole new wave of fans. Ever since Ann Pilling's debut novel, BLACK HARVEST, now a Collins Modern Classic, she has built her reputation into one of our best-loved and most talented contemporary writers for children. She won the Guardian Fiction Award for HENRY'S LEG. These two reissues, THE BEGGAR'S CURSE and THE WITCH OF LAGG, follow the same children who appear in BLACK HARVEST -- Colin, Prill and Oliver. In THE BEGGAR'S CURSE, Colin, Prill and Oliver arrive to stay in the village of Stang, where they soon realise that there's something terribly wrong. Prill feels something sinister in the ancient rituals of the village play...Colin knows the 'accidents' that keep happening are something much more gruesome...But only Oliver seems to know the truth. He understands the dark secret the village is hiding and senses that it comes from the black waters of Blake's Pit. He can even feel the terrible power of the beggar's curse...Ann Pilling has managed, yet again, to create a mysterious, compelling and gripping tale.About the AuthorAnn Pilling was brought up in Warrington, Cheshire, and many of her books are set in the industrial North West. After reading English at London University, she taught in Buckinghamshire (the setting for THE EMPTY FRAME) then spent some time in America before returning to England and settling eventually in Oxford. She is married with two sons. Whenever possible, Ann retreats to the Yorkshire Dales which she calls 'the country of my heart'. She loves animals.