The Wish House - Celia Rees

In the summer of 1976, on holiday in South Wales, fifteen-year-old Richard is shocked and fascinated to meet the tenants of the historic Wish House. Jay Dalton is a well-known artist, and his large, bohemian family - casually stripping naked on the beach, smoking dope, ignoring convention - seem astonishingly glamorous. Richard falls under the spell of beautiful, free-spirited Clio, Jay's daughter. She seduces him in a secret forest grotto, where they spend idyllic days playing out her favourite Celtic myths of brave grail knights and powerful enchantresses.

But why does Jay paint so many nudes of Clio? Why is he obsessed with the need to paint Richard? Why does his wife grow poisonous plants in her Witch's Garden? The Daltons' dark secrets draw Richard into a world of disturbing relationships, where he discovers, too late, that his innocent arrival at the Wish House was no accident . . .

Celia's highly acclaimed novels for older children and teenagers include THE WISH HOUSE, WITCH CHILD, PIRATES and TRUTH OR DARE. She lives in Leamington Spa, and divides her time between writing, talking to readers in schools and libraries, and teaching creative writing on the University of Warwick's Open Studies Programme.