It’s 1881, and Old College, Oxford plays host to three very different academics. Abercrombie Smith is a model of Victorian manhood, clean of limb and sound of mind. Monkhouse Lee is a delicate and unworldly student from Thailand. And occupying the rooms between them is the strange and exotic Edward Bellingham, whose unnatural researches into the secrets of ancient Egypt are the talk of the college. Can Bellingham’s experiments truly bring the breath of life to the horrifying bag of bones that is the mysterious Lot No 249?

John Martin is on trial for his life. Facing him, the infamous 'hanging judge', George Jeffreys. But this is not a cut-and-dried murder case, because the innocent young girl Martin is accused of killing has been seen after her death.Plot summaryAdd synopsis

Mr. Williams, the curator of a university art museum, is offered a mezzotint on approval from an art dealer. The engraving shows an English manor house. Curious about the piece, he receives it and shows it to his colleagues. In turn, they each see a piece of fine art but with something grotesque in the subject matter. The mysterious mezzotint slowly reveals a disturbing story.

For modern teenagers Jamie and Lucy, though, adventure arrives in the form of a mysterious old man, Mr Blunden. He offers them a job, as caretakers to a ruined old house that's said to be haunted. Once they move in, Lucy and Jamie explore the grounds and meet two more kids - Sara and her younger brother, Georgie. But there's something unusual about them. They're ghosts. Or not quite. Sara and Georgie have used a potion to travel two hundred years into the future in search of help. They're convinced that the evil Mr and Mrs Wickens plan to murder them for Georgie's inheritance!The old man, it seems is the key to it all. With his help, Lucy and Jamie must travel back to 1821, save their new friends, set history back on its proper path and redeem their remorseful new friend, the Amazing Mr BlundeN.