Hero The Highway Girl

A wonderfully atmospheric adventure story of bravery and derring -do following in the footsteps of classics in this genre such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Set in a time of highwaymen and treachery where the divide between rich and poor is wide and when girls and women have no agency over their own lives, our feisty heroine Hero, a rich heiress, decides she must take action.

She needs to dodge a marriage proposal and the only way she can see to escape is to be held up by a highwayman. But when the notorious highwayman Gentleman Jack holds up her carriage he gets more than he bargained for when Hero orders him to kidnap her. Against his better judgement he takes Hero and her pet wolf Flow back to his hidden cave, gloriously kitted out with candelabra and posh stolen furniture. The two form an unlikely alliance, Hero with her wolf and Jack with his beloved horse, Diabolo. They all have something of the wild and untamed about them.

Hero longs to be a highwayman herself, to gain her freedom, and is a willing learner but she is headstrong and wilful and almost at every turn hijacks Jack’s plans, putting both their lives in jeopardy. Jack is finally captured but Hero rescues him in a daring jail breakout.

Hero and Jack are chalk and cheese yet have much in common as they were both left as orphans as very young children, and had led lonely lives up until meeting each other. Both feel as if they are missing something deep within themselves.

The adventure is fast paced with many twists and turns. Chapters are short and snappy with Hero and Jack taking turns to narrate the story. It is a satisfying and heartwarming tale with ends neatly tied up, and the villain getting his rightful come-uppance. It would be the perfect story for children moving on to greater challenges after early readers.