The Guardian reported yesterday that the adventures of Willard Price's intrepid animal collectors Hal and Roger Hunt are set to be continued by the award-winning author Anthony McGowan.
"From battling cannibals to wrestling crocodiles, capturing two-headed snakes to riding whales, Price's much-loved Adventure series ran to 14 books, written by the natural historian between 1949 and 1980. Now McGowan, author of young adult novels including Henry Tumour and The Knife That Killed Me, has been commissioned by the Willard Price estate to write four new books in the children's series, starring the children of the original characters in a contemporary setting."
The first of these new adventure stories will see Hal's son Fraser and Roger's daughter Amazon meet for the first time, before sending them off on an adventure to save the rare Amur leopard.
"Hal Hunt has set up this organisation which goes around the world saving species and his son Fraser works with him on that. He's fallen out with Roger who's a freelance conservationist – there's some sibling rivalry there. Hal's slightly hand in hand with big business, he's slightly compromised, and Roger's more of a free spirit," said McGowan, a fan of the Price novels as a child. "Roger and his wife have disappeared [and] because Amazon's parents have gone missing, Fraser comes to meet her."
The first book will be published by Puffin next summer, to mark the 125th anniversary of Price's birth on 28 July. The author, who died in 1983, based his children's books on his own adventurous life, which saw him travel the world on expeditions for the National Geographic Society and the American Museum of Natural History.
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