A Message to My American Readers
At no extra cost
Greetings from across the Atlantic! I'm
so delighted that A House Called Awful End has been published in
the United States that I want to say a few special words to my American
readers. (Yes: YOU.)
The story you're about to read was
originally written in installments for my nephew Ben, who was at
boarding school in England while his parents were living in Russia.
Instead of sending him letters about how many cups of tea I'd drunk or
how hard it had rained (there's plenty of tea drinking and rain in
England), I decided to send him a silly adventure story in installments,
with a new episode every two weeks. The book you now have in your hand
(or clenched between your teeth, if you're very nearsighted or hungry)
is the result. Of course, when I was writing those letters, I had no
idea that they'd end up becoming this book, but they did! May your lives
be full of such good fortune, too.
--PHILIP ARDAGH
2002
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