Allen & Unwin The Farm Beneath the Water book English Paperback 320 pages

The hugely anticipated sequel to The Secret Hen House Theatre with the same hallmarks as its predecessor: great writing and an emotionally engaging, entertaining story.

Hannah's farm is facing a new threat - a water company wants to flood the land to make a reservoir. How can she stand by and watch as the land her family has farmed for generations, and the wildlife, all disappear under a deluge of water? Hannah won't go down without a fight, and the school play might just be the answer. When the going gets tough, the tough take to the stage!

Helen Peters grew up on an old-fashioned farm in Sussex, surrounded by family, animals and mud. She spent most of her childhood reading stories and putting on plays in a tumbledown shed that she and her friends turned into a theatre. After university, she realised that she needed to find a job where someone would pay her to read stories and put on plays (though maybe not in a tumbledown shed) and so she became an English and Drama teacher. Several years later, finding herself as a stay-at-home mother of two, she decided to have a go at writing the sort of book she'd so enjoyed as a child. Helen lives with her husband and children in London, and she can still hardly believe that she now gets to call herself a writer.