Once Upon A Legend

ONCE UPON A LEGEND is a heart-warming and hilarious take on the legend of King Arthur, which sees a rebellious young boy unwittingly summon giants once defeated by Merlin, and finds himself forced to stop them from unleashing chaos and destroying London. Ben recently signed a major six-book deal with Simon & Schuster, which includes three standalone middle grade adventures and two further Christmas books. ONCE UPON A LEGEND will be published in Autumn 2023.

13-year-old Marcus cannot cope with school. He hates it and everything to do with it.  Ever since his parents have split up, all he has felt is a huge anger inside him and he can’t help it if sometimes this boils over. His school though has had enough, and they summon him into the school to tell him he is being sent to a special school for one term – it is called Merlins – and it is where difficult children are sent. 

When Marcus arrives there, he is told the school is built on a magical site, a place where centuries ago, the wizard Merlin defeated the old giants roaming Europe, and confined them to the hills and mountains around the school. Marcus thinks this is nonsense until one night, he breaks into the headmaster’s office and steals what he believes is Merlin’s magic wand.  He climbs the nearest hill to the school and summons all the giants to come out of their prison if they dare.  Before he knows it, the giants do start coming out of the hills.  Angry at being confined for so long, they are determined to destroy London and the whole of Europe and reclaim their power.  Marcus’s trouble making has unleashed chaos and hell on Earth.  Only one person can now stop them – Marcus himself.  Can he team up with the other children and save the world? Will the one friendly giant be able to help him?  Can he find the hero within himself to save London from destruction? 

Large giants, one friendly giant (the rest not), Stonehenge, Merlin and magic gone wrong, humour, slapstick but also fast action drama with London about to be destroyed, a young boy angry with his parents’ divorce having to find inner strength. 

Ben Miller is the bestselling author of magical stories for all the family. He is also an actor, director and comedian, best-known for the ARMSTRONG AND MILLER sketch show, the JOHNNY ENGLISH and PADDINGTON films, BBC’s DEATH IN PARADISE and Netflix’s BRIDGERTON.