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

The Deptford Mice ''The Deptford Mice'' is a trilogy of 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 Crystal Prison'' an ...

'' 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 mo ...

, presented in an

in-universe A fictional universe, also known as an imagined universe or a constructed universe, is the internally consistent fictional setting used in a narrative or a work of art. This concept is most commonly associated with works of fantasy and scienc ...

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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Synopsis

Ten years after the events of '' The Final Reckoning'', a

red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris''), also called Eurasian red squirrel, is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus''. It is an arboreal and primarily herbivorous rodent and common throughout Eurasia. Taxonomy There have been ...

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 fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

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 eight Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World H ...

. 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 ''The Crystal Prison'' is a dark fantasy novel for children by British author Robin Jarvis. It is the second book in '' The Deptford Mice'' trilogy, first published in the United Kingdom in 1989 by Macdonald & Company, London. In 2001, it was ...

''. 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, 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 an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce 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; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...

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 situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...

References

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