Jane has a cat called Furlong. Every day, he walks to school with her and Andrea, her friend. Then he takes his own way home. He's so furry that some people say he looks like a feather-duster. William, the new boy, says he looks like a loo brush. He causes a division in the class and sets the boys against the girls. When he threatens Jane with violence, it seems that the only way she can escape him is to take Furlong's secret path, along the wall, into the unknown. Jan Mark has twice won the Carnegie Medal and has also won "The for Fiction. Her books include "Thunder and Lightenings", "The Dead Letter Box", "Fur, Strat and Chatto" (winner of the 1990 Mother Goose Award), "Fun With Mrs Thumb", "This Bowl of Earth", "The Snow Maze" and "Great Frog and Mighty Moose". Paul Howard has also illustrated "Friends Next Door", "A Very Special Birthday" and "Jim's Winter".