Vivi Conway and The Sword of Legend
Binding: Paperback
Imprint: Knights Of
The first book in a fantastical series that combines a quest for magic and friendship with Welsh mythology and a pinch of science, all within a contemporary setting.
“The problem with growing up listening to bedtime stories about monsters, magic and myth is that you don’t really question it when a lake summons you…”
The lake has been calling to twelve-year-old Vivi Conway. On the day she and her Mams will move from Wales to London, she sneaks out to investigate what is calling her there. Instead of a quiet swim, she finds Excalibur (much smaller than she expected), a ferocious monster (much scarier in real life than in her mythology books), a new friend (which she doesn’t want at all) called Dara and a ghostly dog named Gelert (who can talk).
Gelert insists that Vivi is part of a magical group of children known as enaids who share the souls of witches from legend and must protect the world from being taken over by the evil King Arawn of the Otherworld. Oh, and now she can magically control water. With a little extra help from spiky Avery and sweet-hearted Chia, Vivi must come to terms with her magical destiny and be brave enough to embrace true friendship.
Creators
Lizzie Huxley-Jones (they/them) is an autistic author and editor based in London. They are the author of the forthcoming queer holiday rom-com Make You Mine This Christmas (2022) from Hodder Studio and fantasy middle grade series Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (2023) from Knights Of. They write joyful stories that centre queerness and disability.
They are the editor of Stim, an anthology of autistic authors and artists, which was published by Unbound in April 2020 to coincide with World Autism Awareness Week. They are also the author of the children’s biography Sir David Attenborough: A Life Story (2020) and a contributor to the anthology Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again (2021), which was chosen to be a World Book Day Title for 2023, renamed as Being an Ally (2023).