Friday 25 May 2012 After 20 years teaching English at The Grammar School at Leeds and its predecessor Leeds Grammar School, Christine Fenge has a fair idea of what young people read and why some of them don’t. Armed with this insight and inspired by her local North Yorkshire landscape, Mrs Fenge is set to bring a true taste of Yorkshire grit to an international audience with the publication of her debut novel for teenagers ‘The Salamander Stone.’ In a terrifying race against time the heroine, 16 year old Amber Brigantia, is an ordinary girl caught up in extraordinary peril. In a world desperate for cheap sources of energy, she holds the key to a mysterious earth-power called Vril which puts her in great danger. Mrs Fenge said, “It’s all too easy nowadays to be entertained at the casual click of a mouse, but with so many fascinating settings around us here in Yorkshire I had more than enough material for a dark, fast-paced, thriller-cum-fantasy novel that should appeal to the mature teenager.” The book’s all-action storyline features Yorkshire landmarks like the prehistoric Thornborough Henges, near Ripon, the henge at Ferrybridge and the Devils Arrows at Boroughbridge, as well as other locations such as York, Tadcaster and Aberford. The paperback, published by Champagne Books of Calgary, will be published in July and is available now as an ebook. There is a website to accompany the book. Christine Fenge is photographed in her classroom at GSAL with Lydia Gaftarnick and Emma Grahame. General Senior School News
