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The Midnight Folk (HarperCollins Children’s Classics)

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About this listen

 ‘Two of the greatest children’s books ever written’ – The Times on The Box of Delights and The Midnight Folk.

‘You ought to know about the treasure, Kay … for until it is restored or traced, no man of our name ought to rest.’

Determined to recover the long-lost family treasure, Kay finds himself in a race against the evil Abner Brown. Abner has his witch friends and his dark magic to help him, but Kay has the very special Midnight Folk.

In a breathtaking, magical quest, which side will find the treasure first?

John Masefield’s classic children’s book is considered to be one of the great works of modern children’s fiction. Magical, fantastical and filled with vivid, rich characters – brought to life in this edition by Quentin Blake’s stunning artwork – The Magic Folk and its prequel The Box of Delights are a must-read for any child.

©2025 John Masefield, Quentin Blake (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers Action & Adventure Historical Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Magic Pirates Science Fiction & Fantasy Witchcraft

Critic reviews

‘Two of the greatest children’s books ever written’ – The Times on Box of Delights and The Midnight Folk.

All stars
Most relevant
The combination of the irritating pitch of the narrator and the disjointed story made it unbearable to listen to unfortunately. Having previously enjoyed the Box of Delights. I thought I’d like this, but no. I would have returned it for a refund were it still possible..,

Midnight zzzzz…

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It had somehow completely escaped me that The Box Of Delights was a sequel (or had a prequel?) In any case this is another adventure for Kay which takes a galloping romp around all sort of childhood bedtime story tropes - witches, treasure hunt, animals, the lot.

The narrator, as with the Box of Delights lifts the somewhat dense prose by useful of a wide range of lively and distinctive voices for the extremely large cast of characters and makes it an enjoyable listen rather than the slightly “worthy” school library sort of read the age and style suggest!

Who doesn’t like magic and treasure hunts!

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I thought this wonderful tale - first read as a child - would be good company for me on my long dog walks. I wasn’t wrong. The story was every bit as fantastical as I remembered - made so much better by the insightful and entertaining telling of it by the narrator. Pure pleasure.

An Old Story - A Fresh Telling

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I absolutely loved listening to this book. I was as fascinated as my grandchildren and honestly couldn't wait for the next listen in. The voices by the reader were so well thought out and performed. They were exactly as one would imagine. Well worth buying and listening to over again!!

A real treasure

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Pure delight from start to finish from John Masefield in this prequel to the equally exquisite Box of Delights. So imaginative and with headlong pace of plot and characters,human and animal, good and evil. I envy all who have yet to read these books!

Enchanting

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