Tinder by Sally Gardner

What's it all about?

As the title suggests, this is a dark re-working of Hans Christian Anderson's frivolous and amoral tale, 'The Tinder-box'. Gardner's version is a much more harrowing account told by a traumatised young soldier, Otto Hundebiss, during the Thirty Years War. On his travels he encounters a beautiful young princess called Safire, werewolves, and the truly terrifying witch, ‘The Lady of the Nail’.