These are stories about bikes and walkie-talkies and maps that lead somewhere they shouldn't, where the kids end up handling things because the grown-ups won't believe them, and they're written to earn that late-night torch under the duvet.
Move your torch around · the dark is hiding something
Felix built a radio out of a biscuit tin, a stolen toaster knob and a bent coat hanger, and one night the static said his name. Then the caretaker vanished, leaving a note taped inside a mop bucket: do not let her open my head.
Felix forged his mum's signature to get on the Year Seven trip. By the first night his whole class was breathing in perfect unison, and under the volcanic rock something had started ticking — louder every time Felix tries to have a chaotic thought.
A digital detox in a sleepy Welsh village was supposed to be boring. Then twelve-year-old Josiah is trapped aboard a prototype submarine, with a strange link to the creature guarding the ocean floor. To save his brother, he'll have to set it loose.
Free whole-day author visits
I'm Malory. I write adventure novels for children, I'm researching a doctorate on why kids stop reading for pleasure, and I spend whole days in schools turning that around. Pitched for Years 4–6.
Class sets and bulk orders
Buying for a class, a year group or the library? Order direct and I'll invoice the school, so there's no card payment and no purchase order chasing through a retailer. The books come in one delivery rather than in dribs and drabs, and I'll sign them. Tick "class sets or a bulk order" on the form, say roughly how many you need and which titles, and I'll come back with a price and a delivery date.
Also by Malory
Stories in Raconteur Press anthologies for young readers, edited by David Badurina and Dave Freer.
About Malory
I started writing these for my own son, more or less, and the only rule I've stuck to is that every chapter needs a reason to keep reading, which mostly means no lectures, no detours and no easy outs, though the odd detour sneaks in when a monster demands it. If a book earns the late-night torch under the duvet, it's done its job.
When I'm not writing them I'm researching a doctorate at the University of Worcester on why children stop reading for pleasure, which turns out to be the same question the books are trying to answer. I also won the 2026 Jim Baen Memorial Award and review short fiction for Tangent Online, and the books come out through Watchful Wizard and Raconteur Press.
Free story
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The story first appeared in Mad Science!, a Raconteur Press anthology edited by Dave Freer. There's a Book 2, as well.
Pet MonstersRaconteur Press
Crashed Landings“Static in the Pines”
Insert CoinRaconteur Press
Mad Science!ed. Dave Freer
Bits & PiecesMad Science 2
