Frances Hardinge: Hello, this is Frances Hardinge, and I'm the author of A Skinful of Shadows.

I'm going to tell you a bit about how I came to write this book, and then I'll share an excerpt with you.

Like many of my books, A Skinful of Shadows was born from several bits of idea coming together. Years ago I heard about the historical ill-treatment of dancing bears, and it made me really angry. And so, for years, in the back of my mind there had been this lurking story idea of a ghost bear, unshackled at last and coming back for vengeance.

It was years before I found a place for this idea. Then one day, I imagined a lone girl named Makepeace besieged by mad ghosts and threatened by her own family's plans. She would be in terrible danger, hunted through a country tumbling into civil war, and in desperate need of a friend. Perhaps even a very angry, very dead bear.

And now I will read an excerpt to you.

The landlady sprinted away, screaming for help, and Makepeace found herself facing two men with bleeding faces and fury in their eyes. Their wrath was nothing, however, compared to that of the bear as it charged out of the marshlands.

Makepeace was looking the right way to see it, or almost see it. The bear was a dark, smokey pucker in the world, four legs and humpbacked, larger than it had been in life. It galloped towards the trio with frightful speed. Translucent holes marked its eyes and its gaping maw.

The impact knocked Makepeace off her feet. She lay on the ground, stunned. The darkness that was the bear towered over her. It took her a moment to realize that she was staring up at its great, shadowy back. It stood between her and her enemies, as if she were its cub.