In The Land Of The Demon Masters is on Kindle

Easter Sunday
                     The Land of the Demon Masters is now on Kindle. Hurrah!

                     This story, for ten to fourteen year olds, is very heavily influenced by Tibetan history and mysticism. I was particularly taken by the account in Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel when she creates a phantom monk in her meditation cell. Of course, in this story this is exaggerated and the baddies create demons, but in much the same fashion.

                      In fact, the book is brimful of Tibetan associations. The sage/magician is called Padmasam, which is a shortened version of Padmasambhava, and he does sweep the demons out of the country in  much the same way as Padmasambhava is said to have done in Tibet during the 8th century.

                     There is also a foreign invasion in this story. The Chinese of course invaded Tibet.

                     I'm  a school librarian. When I finished this book, I had about fifty pupils in first and second year at high school read it and fill in questionnaires. They did this thinking the book was written by someone called Alison Main, not me. One of the questions asked the readers if they liked the book better than the last book they had read. Four out of the five pupils who had read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone before this book preferred In The Land Of The Demon Masters.