Unusual in being set in Northern Ireland, this is a dark fantasy along the lines of 'Mythago Wood'. Michael Fay is a boy aged thirteen in 1950s Antrim. On the farm where he lives with his grandparents there is a wood where no birds sing, no sheep graze. He's drawn to explore the wild woods with the mare Fancy, and meets a wild girl there, Cat, who seldom leaves the wood, and he stays with her in A DIFFERENT KINGDOM. As the lad grows up faster than normal, he realises that the woodland is magical, dangerous and haunted.

A dark horseman and hounds prowl and the trees seem to be alive - more or less antagonistic in different areas of the woodland. Wolves stalk the Wolfweald area and goblins lurk just out of sight. Cat is a fierce survivor who says that holy water burns her, and is a friend of the Changelings who live here. When they come upon a village, it seems to be back in time, with swords, bows and daggers in use as a mounted raid occurs. Then Michael cannot discover a way out of the wood and tries to tackle a dark castle in the eerie centre instead in the hope that it will give him answers, because now he is ageing too fast.

I first read this book in 1996 but I'm delighted that it has now been reissued. I felt drawn in to the atmospheric story and the settings and descriptive detail are excellent. The travelers eat bannock bread with honey and drink foaming buttermilk; there are scents of treacle, hay and pipe smoke hanging on the damp air. I can recommend A DIFFERENT KINGDOM to horror fans, as well as fantasy lovers. This story by Paul Kearney has fewer primeval English legends than 'Mythago Wood' but there are elements of Celtic legend instead such as fox-men. The author has written several other fantasies about travel to a different world, but this tale stands alone and has an earthy flavour and chilling absorption like few other books.