Rose Wood is almost thirteen and and lives in the Wood Briar Hotel, a cosy country guest house near the sea, which she helps run with her parents. But Rose, although favourite with all the guests and loved by her parents, feels very ordinary: she is clumsy and no matter how hard she tries, she can never improve her horse-riding skills, despite her great love for horses. And she always fails to impress Ben, a fifteen year old prodigy athlete, who comes every year with his family for summer holidays. But strange things begin to happen on the day Rose turns thirteen. Her birthday party is disturbed by the arrival of the mysterious Mr Vingo, a pianist and composer whose unusual music causes Rose to travel in time where she is summoned as the emissary for the magical Great Gray Horse, whose mission is to protect innocent people from evil. But the messenger's mission is full of challenges and dangers; will Rose be brave enough to carry it out? The Messenger is the first book in the four-part fantasy adventure series about Rose and the magical Great Grey Horse. This charming and entertaining series is written with Monica Dickens' typical sensitivity and insight into the hearts of young readers.