NORTHAMPTON, U.K. — Author John Scotcher has seen Christopher Flyte, the hero of his debut novel, The Boy in Winter’s Grasp compared to the worldwide phenomenon that is Harry Potter. Indeed the parallels with JK Rowling’s boy wizard are irresistible. Not only is there a boy at boarding school, thrown into danger, entangled in the sinister agendas of others but the action takes place in a world of magic that is meticulously woven on to the backdrop of everyday life.

‘Flyte is no Potter clone,’ says Dan Grubb, CEO of the publishing house that took the novel. ‘There are clear parallels but the adventures of Flyte and Potter diverge in some key respects. Harry Potter knows from early on that Voldemort is his enemy, but Christopher Flyte has no such insight into the disarmingly helpful Bailey.’

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The Boy In Winter's Grasp
Is this divergence a positive or a negative for Scotcher’s novel? The critics are in no doubt. ‘Scotcher’s genius is to have painted a large part of the landscape whilst calamity stalks the school playing fields, so that by the time Flyte meets his nemesis, the reader knows that the boy is being sucked into danger, but at the same time sees him escaping from the very real horrors of a world ravaged by war, and from the strict outlook of the time that has left him ostracised for the actions of others. It makes for a gripping read.’

I note that Scotcher’s novel attempts no overt comment on the attitudes of the era. His characters remain strictly of their time. ‘I see this as one of the book’s strengths,’ Dan tells me. ‘John has laid out the tapestry for us to survey through 21st century eyes.’

The supernatural worlds of Flyte and Potter are very different. Where Rowling’s boy wizard has to cope with a world where Muggles and Magic co-exist, Christopher Flyte finds himself in an anomalous Arthurian world, both familiar and terrifyingly strange.

Harry Potter’s world holds on for a long time to the original mystery behind Voldemort’s enmity. The secret underlying The Boy in Winter’s Grasp unravels in front of the reader gradually showing where the magic originates and what makes Christopher Flyte’s enemy so dangerous. No spoilers but it’s a clever device for the building of a magical world, and its revelation leaves salvation and catastrophe within reach and equally likely.

The critics haven’t stopped at Harry Potter comparisons. The Boy in Winter’s Grasp has also been hailed ‘Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman and Phillip Pullman rolled into one’. That’s a lot to live up to and I ask John Scotcher if he thinks he could ever write a sequel.

With calm understatement worthy of his own hero, he simply says, ‘Book two is well underway.’

Further information

An extract from The Boy in Winter’s Grasp is available on the YouTube ChatterBooks channel: http://bit.ly/ChatterBooks

The Boy in Winter’s Grasp on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Winters-Grasp-John-Scotcher-ebook/dp/B016H9HC4Y/

John Scotcher: http://www.john-d-scotcher.co.uk/

Fantastic Books Publishing: www.fantasticbookspublishing.com

Contact details

Dan Grubb, Fantastic Books Publishing: email [email protected]
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Fantastic Books Publishing
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