A magical adventure about everyday heroes and the power of music, from the author of The Letter to the King

Deep in the woods, a young boy is kept prisoner by his uncle. He cannot meet other children, or have any friends. He holds the key to a secret. Meanwhile, in a quiet village, Frans the schoolteacher invents stories of the perilous deeds, shipwrecks, desert islands, and haunted castles faced by his heroic alter ego, Frans the Red, to entertain his pupils. Then one stormy evening, too tired to invent something new, Frans fobs his students off with the invented excuse of awaiting an important letter – only when he gets home, a letter really does blow onto his doormat, summoning him to a meeting.

Suddenly, Frans is on a real-life mission to liberate the boy in the woods, a mission on which he will encounter magicians, secret passages, conspiracies, hidden treasure and a sealed parchment which predicts the future. He will learn the secret of the Seven Ways. He will find seven allies. And he will make a fearsome enemy.

Featuring prophecies, wise herbalists, dilapidated coaches and a magical song that proves the solution to all of Frans’s problems, this classic adventure shows that our everyday selves can be every bit as heroic as the parts we play in our most swashbuckling fantasies.