Bloodthirsty unicorns, epic battles, nail-biting races and elemental magic are all to be found in the magical world created by children’s author AF Steadman in her series of books about a unicorn rider called Skandar.
She is coming to Waterstones in Cambridge for a book signing of the third in the series - Skandar and the Chaos Trials \- and huge queues of devoted fans are expected.
The books are set in a world similar to ours except at age 13 every child can take a test to find out whether they will be selected as a unicorn rider - and these are not the gentle unicorns of legend, but vicious beasts. The lucky few are whisked away to an island where they can bond with a unicorn for life and train together to win a glorious race.
Steadman - whose first name is Annabel - reckons the appeal lies in the novels’ crossover between a boarding school tale and popular pony books.
“I think boarding school books are where you can imagine yourself going on adventures because your parents aren’t there. And that’s what the island is. There’s a training school and the students get to live there in tree houses for five years and get up to all kinds of adventures and so it has that atmosphere about it,” she says.
“The unicorns are really scary and ferocious and bloodthirsty. But when you have a bond with a unicorn, it doesn’t try to eat you. There is a really close bond between a rider and their unicorn, which I think those pony books really build on as well. That kind of idea that there’s one horse for you, that’s exactly the way that they feel about their own unicorn and you go on a journey together. In these books, they grow up together and I think that’s a similar idea.
“I’m not a big fan of the fluffy, rainbow cute unicorns. I could never really understand it. I didn’t like it when I was younger. I was much more of a dragon-orientated child. So I thought about why in modern times unicorns are like this, because they haven’t always been. Thousands of years ago, they were a bit more fearsome if you read the oldest texts on them. So I thought I’d really try and rehabilitate them a bit. I thought there was a lost opportunity there”
At the signings for her previous books, Skandar the Unicorn Thief, and Skandar and the Phantom Rider, children arrived in hordes dressed as their favourite character and armed with detailed questions about how to get to the magical island where children learn to ride the legendary beasts. Her public signing queues last three or four hours - at one signing, a fan fainted with excitement.
Annabel says: “The most rewarding thing is meeting the children and having those kinds of conversations at the signings because it brings it to life. As an author, you sit in your room like I’m currently doing, for hours on end, and then to see children queuing up to just say hello to you and tell you how much they like a book… I mean, I just don’t think there’s anything better than that.”
The hero of the books is a 13-year-old boy called Skandar, who becomes a unicorn rider, but he doesn’t have an easy time.
Annabel explains: “Since the beginning has been a bit of an outsider because it’s based around elemental magic. So we have fire, water, air and earth magic. But in the first book, Skandar finds out that his element is actually banned. He manages to get to the island but has a lot of his struggles because he isn’t really allowed to be there. And he is the kind of unlikely hero character - he’s really supposed to be the villain. That’s who everyone assumes that he is going to be. He finds a group of friends who see him for who he really is and despite all that is a good guy, a kind person who prizes friendship and doing the right thing over the fact that he’s felt this pull of the darkness of his element.”
In book three, Skandar and his sister Kenna are finally both at the Eyrie, a training centre for student riders, but tensions are high. To survive their third year of training, Skandar and his friends must complete a series of terrifying trials across the island’s elemental zones. Friendships, allegiances and rider-unicorn bonds will be pushed to the limit – only the strongest will make it. Meanwhile, Kenna’s forged bond to a wild unicorn has left her alienated and alone. And when a terrible discovery puts the future of the Island in peril, all fingers point in one direction. As dark forces assemble, Skandar must decide how far he is willing to go – for Kenna, and for the Eyrie.
Of her latest book, Annabel says: “I think it’s probably the most epic one yet. And it’s got some very large twists in it which I’m hoping readers are going to love and also be shocked by.”
After reading law at the University of Cambridge’s Selwyn College, Annabel became a barrister, but she soon realised her heart wasn’t in it. She then took a creative writing course at the Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, and soon found an agent with a book about lawyers. After that was rejected by publishers she tried again with an idea for children. The film rights for Skandar and the Unicorn Thief were snapped up and she secured a record-breaking three-book deal.
She has also just signed a new deal for an adult book series, out in 2026, where Cambridge will be a backdrop. “It’s actually set in a Cambridge outside time,” says Annabel.
“The first book is called Timeless and it is about time-travelling assassins, with romance and dark academia and the Cambridge setting. It’s set in a Cambridge in the 1920s, which stays in the 1920s always, and then they enter time to kind of fix changes that time vandals are making. So, Cambridge will feature very heavily.”
Asked if there is a particular college she has in mind for the setting, Annabel says: “I was at Selwyn College so I feel like that’s a good one and it doesn’t get as much attention as some others.”
Meet internationally bestselling author AF Steadman, at Waterstones in Cambridge on Friday 26 April at 4.30pm.
No need to buy a ticket - just buy a copy of the book and join the queue.
