A light-hearted children's book, set in the late nineteenth century, with just a touch of magic.
It opens with a whopping coincidence, as the four siblings flee their grandmother and stumble on their Uncle Ambrose. But since they hate it there, and their father has left them there because he's in Egypt, their uncle takes them on, on the condition he can educate them.
Their further adventures involve their surprise at variable English weather (having grown up in India), an old woman nearly a recluse, a book of spells hidden in a cabinet, a mute man, a pony, poachers and their traps, and much more.