Oxford publisher David Fickling, who discovered a host of brilliant new writers like Mark Haddon and Philip Pullman, has chosen Tim Hall’s extraordinary debut novel Shadow of the Wolf, “a fantastical, daring and entirely new take on the Robin Hood legend”, to launch his new independent business.

Hall’s dramatic tale of suspense, loyalty, cruelty and delight is set in Medieval England. When he is seven, Robin’s father teaches him the lore of Sherwood forest and gives him his prized hunting shortbow before leaving him, never to be seen again.

Finding no welcome in his village Robin escapes to the greenwood. Into his shelter bursts the feisty Lady Marian in search of a hiding place from her father’s horsemen. She shows him the ‘whitewashed towers’ of her home, Delbosque Manor, and enchants him with tales of gods and monsters of the ancient world.

Together, for four enchanted years, they enjoy a ‘life of their own’ exploring enchanted castles, ‘ancient barrows and firefly grottos’ while he teaches her the secrets of the wildwood. “You and I are the same, Robin Loxley”, she tells him before being cruelly taken from him. For the second time in his life he is ‘truly and utterly alone.’ Rescued by Sir Bors, he is taken to his citadel, home to craftsmen, clerics and military men, where Robin undertakes rigorous training to become a knight of the realm — but without Marion, his soul mate, all this is as nothing. Who is holding her captive — her father, Sir Bors or the wicked Sheriff?

Then he finds her message: “Follow the Path of Angels” and sets off. With vengeance in his heart he fights for his life; blinded, he becomes an elemental forest creature: cruel, resourceful, dangerous, “stalking through the castle on feline paws; soaring with the buzzard above the shires; patrolling the coast with the gulls”.

Malorie Blackman, the children’s laureate, believes young adult readers expect “a truthful narrative, one that doesn’t hold back from painful and gritty realism” — criteria that are met by Hall, a brilliant wordsmith who creates a believable otherworld inhabited by characters we care about.