Jelly Bean is pleased to announce its sixth ‘Book of the Month’, The Haunted Staircase by Devika Rosamund. This mind-bending time travel novel is reminiscent of classics such as Five Children and It and The Famous Five.

However, unlike the books of E Nesbit and Enid Blyton, The Haunted Staircase takes both the reader and the characters back to a realistic portrayal of Victorian servitude. Similar to Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs, this book is a fascinating depiction of a bygone world, but with an added twist! What if children from the twenty-first century ended up as servants in a Victorian house?

Devika wanted to combine today’s progressive storylines, with the kind of books she used to read as a child. She says: “I always intended to write a children’s novel for 9 to 12 year olds that involved ghosts, magic and adventure, but I wanted it to be educational and fair representation of life in service.”

The characters use a magic spell to travel back in time where they investigate the mysterious death of a Victorian servant girl. For authenticity, Devika undertook a great deal of research about Victorian service. In particular, how so-called employees were often treated as no better than slaves. She continues: “I was aware that the Victorian Age was covered by the National Curriculum, so my book seemed like a natural fit. I live now in Scotland where the story is set, but I was a primary school teacher for more than twenty-five years in London and Kent. I always found that children enjoyed ghost stories, and decided to write a spooky story with realistic overtones. Hopefully my book will entertain, inform and reward today’s modern youngsters.”

Devika is also a talented artist and was pleased when Candy Jar suggested including her artwork in The Haunted Staircase. She concludes:  “I had a lot of fun illustrating the story myself and I hope that my writing and simple illustrations will inspire young readers to write and illustrate their own stories. I am grateful to my editor, Shaun Russell, for improving my ghost story by adding humour. I wanted the ghost to be a pleasant character, rather than an evil one, and I always make sure my stories have happy endings. I like to leave young readers with a sense of satisfaction that all the problems are solved in the end.”

The Haunted Staircase can be purchased from here.