Perfect for budding anti-heroes who prefer Shrek to Prince Charming, this is a comic romp that’s easy to read. And the good news is that storming the castle comes with a ‘no skills required’ promise…

Weighing in at 477 pages, with a healthy sense of 21st Century humour, this is the second book in the ‘Hero’ series, after The Hero’s Guide to Saving your Kingdom introduced us to the talents (and incapabilities) of Prince Liam, Prince Frederick, Prince Duncan and Prince Gustav. In that debut, all four were destined to be the hero of the moment but in reality, they just about scraped together a quarter of the right qualities each in order to clutch victory from the somewhat large jaws of almost certain disaster.

This time around, there’s plenty of opportunity for medieval mishaps and squabbling as three of the chaps have to ‘rescue’ Prince Liam from a fate worse than death – marriage to the evil Briar Rose. In another era it would have made a lively script for a Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movie

With chapter titles like ‘A Hero Doesn’t Remember What He Did That Was So Special’ and ‘A Hero Makes It Up As He Goes Along’, you get the idea – this is a light and witty read that talks directly to the sense of humour of bright, cheeky young readers.

Author Notes Born in New York city, Christopher Healy’s career took many of the misplaced heroic twists of his own characters with Healy variously playing the role of cashier, actor, toy store shelf-stocker, person who checks the spelling of celebrity names (and experienced journalist) before his children were born and he started writing for Cookie magazine. He has a wife and two children and lives in New Jersey, USA.