Who you are if you've never seen another face like yours? Where do you belong if you don't know where your home is? What do you call yourself when others call you 'freak'? How can you be brave when you are full of fear? Why would you choose purpose over love? Skrimsli is the second fantasy adventure from author Nicola Davies set in a world where animals and humans can sometimes share their thoughts. It traces the early life of Skrimsli, the tiger sea captain who stole readers' hearts in The Song that Sings Us. He and his friends, Owl and Kal, must escape the clutches of the tyrannical circus owner Kobret Majak, and his twin assassin-acrobats, then stop a war and save the ancient forest, where the Tiger, and the Owl are sacred guardians. Skrimsli and his friends are helped by the Palatine, desert princess and her eagle, a chihuahua who thinks she's a wolf, a horse with heart of gold and the crew of a very unusual ship. This is a story full of excitement and danger, that explores themes of friendship, loyalty, identity and love, in the context of some of humanity's toughest problems.

Nicola Davies trained as a zoologist and studied geese, bats and whales in the wild before becoming a TV presenter and a writer. A former presenter for The Really Wild Show, she has written more than eighty books for children of all ages, which have been translated into many languages. She lives in Pembrokeshire in west Wales.