Robin and Meric are the sons of neighbouring squires. One day, on a fishing trip into the woods, Meric disobeys the orders of the witch, Granny Shaftoe, and shortly after, disappears ...

Robin misses his friend, but occupies himself telling stories to his son, Alan, and the foundling, Margaret. Before long, these two are old enough to go fishing at the well deep in the woods. They meet Granny Shaftoe along the way, and she tells Alan that he must keep whatever he catches. But when Alan reels in his line, an appalling monster emerges, begging not to be thrown back. Alan, horrified, disregards the monster's pleas, and lets go - and turns to find that Margaret, too, has disappeared.

It is soon time for Alan to fight for his king. On his return years later, he is appalled to find that a strange, man-eating worm has laid his town to waste . . .

This book is part of a book series called Hodder Silver .

There are 160 pages in this book. This book was published 2002 by Hachette Children's Group .

William Mayne has been described as one of the outstanding children's authors of this century (Oxford Companion to Children's Lit. ). He has won all major awards including the Carnegie and Guardian fiction award.