Stephen Bellinger longed to be a painter, but it seemed as if he must work in the fields from dawn to dusk all his life; for Stephen was a serf, tied to the land and to a cruel bailiff. 

It was the arrival in the village of Gilbert, the journeyman painter, that gave Stephen the idea. "It's surprising the lads who find their way to London town!" Gilbert told him. But the penalty for running away might well be death.

After a thrilling escape and chase across the countryside, Stephen finds his way to the Sign of the Golden Pestle, in London, the painters' guild where he becomes an apprentice. There follows a series of adventures, and he finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue from which there seems to be no escape.

This is an exciting story with an unusual background, set in a period when the first stirrings towards freedom were being heard in the land. The climax is set against the return of the Black Prince from France with the royal captives, the French King John and Prince Philippe.

Christine Price is a brilliant young author in her early twenties with a great future. And she has provided her own bold illustrations which are a perfect complement to her story.

From the dust jacket of the 1953 edition by John Lane the Bodley Head