Age 10+

You can’t give McCaughrean credit for the haunting plot of Edmond Rostand’s original play, Cyrano de Bergerac, but you can applaud her for the elegance of her retelling. Packaged as “The most romantic story ever told”, Cyrano does indeed contain the great self-sacrificing behaviour that qualifies as a contender for this title: think of La Dame aux Camelias (or La Traviata, another version of the same), A Tale of Two Cities, or even Brief Encounter . . . Cyrano, nasally challenged, witty and brave, sacrifices his own feelings to the happiness of his beloved Roxanne, and aids a witless rival’s wooing by writing declarations of love on his behalf. Roxanne falls in love with the mind that is expressed in the words, but her suitor dies before the true author is revealed. Cyrano protects his memory by keeping the secret until it is really too late. This book’s strength lies in the poetry of McCaughrean’s language, the period flavour and the elaborate humour (successfully translated against the odds) and, not least, all those nose jokes.

(OUP £8.99)

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