''The Deptford Mice Almanack'' is a companion book to ''

The Deptford Mice ''The Deptford Mice'' is a trilogy of Children's fantasy, children's dark fantasy novels by British author Robin Jarvis. The first book, ''The Dark Portal'', was published in 1989 by Macdonald & Company in London, followed that same year by ''The C ...

'' and ''Deptford Histories'' trilogies by

Robin Jarvis Robin Jarvis (born 8 May 1963) is a British Young-Adult fiction (YA) and children's novelist, who writes dark fantasy, suspense and supernatural thrillers. His books for young adults have featured the inhabitants of a coastal town battling a mon ...

, presented in an

in-universe A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...

style. It was first published in 1997 by Macdonald Young Books in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Synopsis

Ten years after the events of ''

The Final Reckoning ''The Final Reckoning'' is a dark fantasy novel for children by British author Robin Jarvis. It is the third book in ''The Deptford Mice'' trilogy, first published in the United Kingdom in 1990 by Macdonald & Company, London. In 2002, it was p ...

'', a

red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...

artist and writer named Gervase Brightkin is staying as a guest of

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

heroine A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero' ...

Audrey Scuttle, now the Starwife in

Greenwich Park Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World Herita ...

. He is commanded by her to create an almanack to record the lore and traditions of the mice, squirrels, bats, and rats. There are entries for all the days of the year, and every major event in the main novels is given a date. Gervase includes journal entries throughout telling of his stay in Greenwich as well as his travels to Fennywolde and Holeborn to ask William 'Twit' Scuttle and Arthur Brown to tell their stories. While in Fennywolde, Gervase encounters Alison Sedge, the field mouse who was jealous of Audrey in '' The Crystal Prison''. She was seemingly driven mad because of the death of her love interest, Jenkin Nettle, for which she blames Audrey. Alison solemnly warns that Audrey will not be the Starwife for much longer and will know great loss. At the end of the year, the Great Oak (in which the evil rat god Hobb was imprisoned by a previous Starwife, Ysabelle) falls down because of heavy winds. It is seen as an ill omen, and many of the grey squirrels in the park begin to whisper that it was Audrey's fault because she is not a squirrel but "merely" a mouse. Traditionally, the office of Starwife was always held by a squirrel. When two

black squirrels Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...

, Morella and her father Modequai, arrive in Greenwich, everyone is shocked as that monarchical race was thought to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. The grey squirrels see Morella as the perfect replacement for Audrey, and ultimately there is a revolt. Audrey is ousted from office, her

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ...

is given to Morella, and the latter takes the title of Starwife. However, it is heavily implied that Morella is not what she seems. The almanack ends on this ominous note, setting the stage for a future ''Deptford Mice'' novel to resolve the

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

References

1997 children's books Children's fiction books Books by Robin Jarvis The Deptford Mice series {{child-book-stub