Book excerpt: “The van was being driven at speed and when it turned off the main road onto a rough track that ran through the woods Izzy felt a warm hand …” In Izzy’s Quest for Gold we meet nine-year-old Izzy and her older brother Josh. They are sent to stay on their grandmother’s farm near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland whilst their mother recovers from an operation. They make friends with a local boy called Theo who helps archaeologist Mary-Anne on a nearby excavation where she is trying to locate the site of a long forgotten Roman fort. The three children decide to help Mary-Anne but are distracted with the tales of spooky noises and sightings of a ‘golden warrior’ as told by Old Joe, a smelly poacher. Encounters with a nasty game-keeper, kidnapping and a chase through the woods lead to the exciting climax of this story in which the children have unexpected help when things get a bit out of hand.