Saffy's Angel

Story

Saffron has been adopted by her mother’s sister and is growing up in her chaotic, eccentric, artistic family but Saffron wants to find something from her own past. She wants to find the stone angel her grandfather left her in his will. Her cousins have their own preoccupations. Caddy has exams, driving lessons and a garden full of guinea pigs to look after. Indigo is trying to conquer his fear of heights. Rose only cares about art. Saffron enlists the help of her new friend Sarah – met when Sarah ran her over in her wheelchair – to find a way to go to Sienna and look for her angel.

Why we chose it

Hilary MacKay writes vividly about families and family life. Saffy’s Angel is full of warmth, humour affection and characters you want to get to know.

Where it came from

An avid reader as a child, Hilary McKay studied Botany and Zoology and worked as a scientist before becoming a writer. She says she became a writer because she was a reader – she liked books and wanted to create them.

Where it went next

Saffy’s Angel won the 2002 Whitbread Award. The Casson family story continued in five further books, Indigo’s Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After, Forever Rose and Caddy’s World.

Associated stories

Hilary McKay has written a number of books for children of all ages. She has written two other family series - The Exiles trilogy: The Exiles (winner of the Guardian Children’s fiction prize 1992), The Exiles at Home, and The Exiles in Love and the Binny stories – Binny for Short, Binny in Secret and Binny Bewitched. Wishing for Tomorrow is her sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess which follows the stories of the other girls from the original story. The Skylarks War, the story of a family before and during the first world war, won the Costa Children’s Book Award 2019 .