DOCTOR ILLUMINATUS begins with brother and sister, Pip and Tim, moving into an ancient manor house where they hear strange tapping noises at night. When they tap back, a panel in the wall opens and out comes a strange boy dressed like a 50s schoolboy. His name is Sebastian, and he is the alchemist's son. Sebastian is kept in a state of suspended animation and wakes up down the centuries to continue the struggle against the evil alchemist, de Loudeac, who betrayed his father. De Loudeac's continuing aim is to create an homunculus - a kind of mannikin android, who will be his puppet in evil. Pip and Tim join with Sebastian to stop de Loudeac and are drawn into a nail-biting battle of alchemists.

 

This book was published 2003 by Penguin Books Ltd .

Martin Booth spent his childhood in Hong Kong and Kenya. He is well-known as an adult novelist, and has been shortlisted twice for the Booker award. He has two grown-up children and lives in Devon.