NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

''You aren''t merry,'' said Clem to her captor. ''And you aren''t all men. So there''s been some marketing confusion somewhere along the line.''

When Mariel finds out that her band of Merry Men have kidnapped the wrong person, she''sa whole new level of miffed. They were supposed to be bringing back the regional healer, Old Rosie, who, rumour has it, has been aiding the Sheriff of Nottingham. They were not supposed to kidnap her assistant, Clem - a chatty, freckled, curly-haired whirlwind of a teenage girl who is unnervingly cheerful about being knocked out with horrible-smelling herbs and bundled into the back of a wagon.

As the granddaughter of Robin Hood and a newly blooded captain of the Merry Men, Mariel hasa lot to prove, and this mission has gone instantly and massively pear-shaped .

So begins a love story to rival that of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and an adventure that will change the lives of the inhabitants of the Greenwood for good - not to mention the course of myth and history.