When Jessie and her older sister Kay find a book called The History of Mischief,
hidden beneath the floorboards in their grandmother’s house, they uncover a
secret world. The History chronicles how, since antiquity, mischief-makers have
clandestinely shaped the past – from an Athenian slave to a Polish salt miner and
from an advisor to the Ethiopian Queen to a girl escaping the Siege of Paris. Jessie
becomes enthralled by the book and by her own mission to determine its accuracy.
Soon the History inspires Jessie to perform her own acts of mischief, unofficially
becoming mischief-maker number 202 in an effort to cheer up her eccentric
neighbour, Mrs Moran, and to comfort her new schoolfriend, Theodore. However, not
everything is as it seems. As Jessie delves deeper into the real story behind the
History, she becomes convinced her grandmother holds the key to a long-held family
secret.
The History of Mischief is about the many things we do to try to escape
About the Author
Rebecca is a writer from Perth. Her whole life has been spent in the company of books, with careers in libraries and universities. Formerly an academic at Curtin University and Brunel University London, she has published research on satire and politics. She has worked in the stacks of the State Library of Western Australia and fostered childhood literacy as the Library Officer at Guildford Primary, WA’s oldest public school. Her creative work combines whimsy and play with extensive research and critical insights. Her stories and poems have appeared in publications such as Westerly, Stories of Perth and Visible Ink. Her novel The History of Mischief won the 2019 Fogarty Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript.
