Just So Stories

Harper Collins Australia

May 2026

ISBN: 9781460766538

RRP; $18.99

Nanny Tobbins #1 was great fun and liberally laced with solid historical references. Now #2 continues the fantasy six months on with Bertie once again finding herself in the midst of misadventure.

The Great Exhibition is over and as the remaining displays and exhibits are packed up after the Queen’s final visit, Bertie is on hand while her Papa is busy. Her unceremonious and unkind rough treatment by a pompous aristocrat is certainly not what she expected, but luckily her good friend Blot is nearby to help her.

But then, when all is done and dusted, Blot is arrested the following day for the theft of the fabled diamond, the Roshen-Tarin-Nor, property of Queen Victoria herself, leaving Bertie and her family shocked and dismayed. They are equally positive that Blot is no criminal and so begins a campaign to free him from imprisonment, and certain transportation to the colonies, as well as tracking down the real thief.

And as part of her strategy to do so, Albertine needs Nanny Tobbins’ help again. But Nanny is busy in the cemetery taking in hand the education of ghostly children and almost seems to have forgotten her Bertie. How will Bertie remind her and convince her to lend a supernatural hand?

To add to all this drama, the Stepmother is constantly unwell and Bertie has no idea why, but misses her dreadfully. Astute readers will quickly identify the malady but Albertine who, after all, didn’t know much about death certainly knows nothing about expectant mothers.

Into this mix comes Bertie’s interactions with the royal children, Victoria’s brood of youngsters who, although privileged, are very like regular kids in many ways with sibling sniping and teasing. They also have a very unsympathetic German governess, much like Bertie’s own Nanny Tobbin’s replacement. But young Vicky proves a valuable and trusted ally for Bertie, as does – much to her surprise – the oldest child, Crown Prince Albert Edward.

This is another exciting, at times tense but often humorous, romp through Victorian London and Bertie’s small world. Readers will be intrigued by the story and rumoured history of the murdered little princes of the Tower (see below) and another 5 👻👻👻👻👻– for what is proving to be a fresh and exciting series for middle grade readers.

The “Princes in the Tower” refers to the unsolved 1483 disappearance of 12-year-old King Edward V and his 9-year-old brother, Richard, Duke of York. ​The princes were last seen playing in the Tower’s gardens in the summer of 1483. By autumn, they had completely disappeared from public view. ​During structural renovations at the Tower of London in 1674, workmen discovered a wooden box containing two small, incomplete skeletons buried beneath a staircase in the White Tower. An examination of the bones in 1933 proved inconclusive regarding the skeletons’ ages, sexes, or exact causes of death. Without definitive DNA testing or new archaeological evidence, the fate of the Princes in the Tower remains one of history’s greatest cold cases.