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The Box of Delights
Kay Harker is heading home for the school holidays. Recently orphaned, he knows this Christmas will be different but nothing could prepare him for the journey that lies ahead.
On the train he meets an old magician, Cole Hawlings, who charges Kay with safeguarding a wondrous device that has time-travelling powers. It's an instrument that Cole's nemesis, the wicked sorcerer Abner Brown, will stop at nothing to steal for himself. And so when the old man mysteriously disappears, Kay faces the fight of his life. He must protect both the Box of Delights and, with it, the people he loves.
The Box of Delights is a magical and festive adventure in which one boy must confront the secrets of the past to defeat the evil in his present. The future of Christmas itself depends upon him.
Adapted for the stage for the first time by Piers Today, John Masefield's much-loved classic The Box of Delightspremiered at Wilton's Music Hall in December 2017.
'One of the greatest children's books ever written.' The Times
On the train he meets an old magician, Cole Hawlings, who charges Kay with safeguarding a wondrous device that has time-travelling powers. It's an instrument that Cole's nemesis, the wicked sorcerer Abner Brown, will stop at nothing to steal for himself. And so when the old man mysteriously disappears, Kay faces the fight of his life. He must protect both the Box of Delights and, with it, the people he loves.
The Box of Delights is a magical and festive adventure in which one boy must confront the secrets of the past to defeat the evil in his present. The future of Christmas itself depends upon him.
Adapted for the stage for the first time by Piers Today, John Masefield's much-loved classic The Box of Delightspremiered at Wilton's Music Hall in December 2017.
'One of the greatest children's books ever written.' The Times
- GenresPlays
84 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
About the author
Piers Torday
39 books227 followersPiers Torday is an award-winning and best-selling children's writer. Books include The Last Wild, The Dark Wild, The Wild Beyond, The Wild Before, There May Be a Castle, The Lost Magician, and The Frozen Sea, with his latest one, Midnight Treasure, out in September 2024. His work has been translated into 14 languages.
His plays include The Box of Delights (Wilton’s/RSC), Christmas Carol, The Child in the Snow, and The Wind in the Wilton’s (Wilton’s Music Hall). The Little Angel Theatre has adapted his book There May Be a Castle for the stage.
The son of Paul Torday (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), he completed his father’s final unfinished novel, The Death of an Owl and co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists over 60.
He has contributed short stories to Winter Magic, Scoop, and Return to Wonderland, nonfiction pieces for The Book of Hopes, The Writer’s Map, and Swallowed by a Whale, reviewed books for The Guardian, The Literary Review, and The Spectator, and judged The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, The Costa Book Awards, and the British Book Awards.
Piers is also Chair of the Society of Authors Sustainability Steering Committee, a trustee of The Unicorn Theatre, Patron of Shrewsbury Book Fest and an Artistic Associate at Wilton’s Music Hall.
His plays include The Box of Delights (Wilton’s/RSC), Christmas Carol, The Child in the Snow, and The Wind in the Wilton’s (Wilton’s Music Hall). The Little Angel Theatre has adapted his book There May Be a Castle for the stage.
The son of Paul Torday (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), he completed his father’s final unfinished novel, The Death of an Owl and co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists over 60.
He has contributed short stories to Winter Magic, Scoop, and Return to Wonderland, nonfiction pieces for The Book of Hopes, The Writer’s Map, and Swallowed by a Whale, reviewed books for The Guardian, The Literary Review, and The Spectator, and judged The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, The Costa Book Awards, and the British Book Awards.
Piers is also Chair of the Society of Authors Sustainability Steering Committee, a trustee of The Unicorn Theatre, Patron of Shrewsbury Book Fest and an Artistic Associate at Wilton’s Music Hall.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
May 22, 2026
Read for a possible drama project, but feel I should have read the novel first. or at least watched the fabled BBC series. Confusing and almost impossible to reproduce on stage (Small Kay?), and I don't feel the lead characters have enough time to bed in before being thrown into peril. A bit odd.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review