The Face...at 40

We would do all Bellairsdom a great disservice if we did not acknowledge that this year is the fortieth anniversary of The Face in the Frost. It is still the first (and the only compleat) book to feature the wizards Prospero and Roger Bacon who live in a strange land known only as the Southern Kingdom. And what a book it is.  Bellairs actually composed a lot of the book in another kingdom – the United Kingdom...England – in his years after teaching at Shimer College. How far along in Prospero's tale Bellairs was before he arrived in England is uncertain but the ambiance there surely inspired him – note the similarities of local flavor found in the Gorgon's head in Bath and Somerset's Five Dials Inn to some of the encounters in Face.

And just in time for the big Four-Oh is the release of a sequel (okay, part of a sequel) called The Dolphin Cross.

That said, in celebration of this fantastic fortieth anniversary we ask you what’s your favorite moment from the book? What passage kept you up at all hours of the night? Are there any memories that still stand out long after the book has returned to the shelf?

Share your remembrances here or at the John Bellairs Experience.