The Twelve

How do you save someone lost in time?

At the stroke of midnight on winter solstice, Libby disappears - vanishing from the face of the Earth. Only her older sister, Kit, and a mysterious boy named Story remember that she ever existed.

To find Libby and bring her safely home, the pair must embark on a perilous journey into the distant past, across a land steeped in ancient folklore. Together, Kit and Story will face dangers beyond their wildest imagination as they race to uncover the secret of the Twelve before Time itself runs out...

The Twelve was the 2024 winner of the Nero Prize for Children's Fiction, winner of the 2025 Tir Na N-Og award in the English-language category, and was a Financial Times and Guardian Book of the Year.

PRAISE FOR THE TWELVE:

'Reminiscent of Alan Garner' Financial Times, Best Book of 2024

'Haunting and resonant, with echoes of Susan Cooper and Alan Garner' Guardian, Best YA Books of 2024

'A beguiling tale of ancient magic, good and evil, deeply rooted in the Welsh landscape' Observer



Liz Hyder has been making up stories ever since she can remember. She has a BA in drama from the University of Bristol and, in early 2018, won the Bridge Award/MoniackMhor's Emerging Writer Award. Her first novel, Bearmouth, won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Readers, the Branford Boase Award, and was TheTimes's Children's Book of The Year. Tom De Freston is an artist based in Oxford with his wife, Kiran Millwood Hargrave. His practice is dedicated to the construction of multimedia worlds, combining paintings, film and performance into immersive visceral narratives.