The harrowing true story of a Hungarian Jewish boy and his mother and their journey to – and escape from – Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in the Second World War. The daughter of the early public relations advocate Basil Saunders and his journalist wife Betty (née Smith), Saunders has worked for newspapers and magazines in the UK, including The Sunday Times, Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph, She, and Cosmopolitan. Photograph: Snap Stills/Rex 'Out of a sandy hollow pops the mythical creature' … Five Children and It. I am a mild fan for world wars but mind you I am extremely proud for those who fought for our country.

I think that one of the things I enjoyed most about the original Five Children and It (although it's probably been about 15-20 years since I read it) was that the wishes always went awry, and the Psammead was just like "lol w/e" while the children scrabbled to get themselves out of all sorts of scrapes. Settings are vaguely or perfunctorally drawn with no particular attention for how they speak to the bucolic pastoral.With the other children growing up and less interested in their old friend, especially since he isn’t quite what he used to be, the exploring and adventures are left to the two youngest. Indeed I imagined early on when the children met a brief resistance in trying to tell their older siblings about the Psammead that it was going to be a case of the older ones not being able to see or believe in the sand fairy any more. She loves the sand fairy despite his faults (‘Edie thought the Psammead’s yawns, when his mouth went from horizontal to vertical, awfully sweet’) and it is she who believes he will be redeemed. She puts in enough details from the previous books in the series to gratify the Nesbit fans of the world (few though they might be) while also catching the reader up on everything that came before in a bright, brisk manner. Why - and what they do about it - is, at least, one of the major strands of the novel, although possibly the least effective.

With classics such as Ted Hughes's The Iron Man and award-winners including Emma Carroll's Letters from the Lighthouse, Faber Children's Books brings you the best in picture books, young reads and classics. I can fully say that I think Saunders handled the story well but I do implore those that read it to at least visit the original first.The Psammead is a rather disagreeable, grumpy creature, centuries old, but who has the power to grant wishes.

Jane, Bobs, Anthea, the Lamb and newcomer Edie are taken here, there and everywhere by the Psammead as he seeks redemption (a mission he reluctantly undertakes as he reveals some of his darker moments in his life). I haven't read Five Children and It (though, oddly, I did read its sequels) - the good news is that I don't think you need to to appreciate this book. I've never read Five Children and It but I'm familiar with the story from 90s TV series, so I already had hazy memories of the Pembletons and Psammead.

The author is allowed to read into someone else’s characters and present them with the necessary complexity they weren’t originally allowed. Time jumps forward to the First World War when the original Five children are grown, and the youngest two Lamb (who was a baby before) and Edie (not born yet) take over as the main children. You don't learn about the war very much but you learn about all the risks that the family takes and what they suffer from the war. While I can think of tons of historical fiction for WWII, there is very little besides the Anne of Green Gables title: "Rilla of Ingleside" about WWI. My point is that rather than utilising the stuff of the Nesbit stories to explore the ideas that Saunders said she found so striking and interesting, the story actually hastily rids itself of the very elements that might have spoken to those themes.

She has also been a regular contributor to radio and television, with appearances on the Radio 4 programs Woman’s Hour, Start the Week, and Kaleidoscope. If I didn't know otherwise you could have convinced me this was a recently unearthed manuscript of Nesbit's.In this book we are also introduced to the Lamb, now a schoolboy, and his younger sister Edie, who was not born when the children first met It, otherwise known as the Psammead. No flying (until at the very end, and only a very little bit is included) -it was all rather serious and dull. This was the one I was least looking forward to reading because its historical and it's very much a traditional, old fashioned children's book (I'm too old for those now!