Carl Ashmore Books in Order

If you want the main time-travel adventure: The Time Hunters → The Time Hunters and the Box of Eternity → The Time Hunters and the Spear of Fate
If you want darker fantasy and supernatural stakes: Zak Fisher and the Angel Prophecy
If you want a heartfelt magical quest: Bernard and the Bibble
If you want a funny holiday adventure: The Night They Nicked Saint Nick
If you want shorter pieces and variety: Rhyme and Reason

Carl Ashmore was born in Crewe, Cheshire, in 1968, and that part of England still matters to his story. He later studied Communication and Media Production at Bournemouth University. Before he was known for children's adventures, he worked in media and education, spending time at Granada Television and later teaching film and media at Burslem College. That mix of screen storytelling and classroom life seems to have served him well, because his books are easy to picture and quick to fall into.

Writing arrived through a change of scene.

During a sabbatical in the South West of France, Ashmore wrote the first draft of The Time Hunters. That book became his debut novel in 2010 and the launch point for the series that made his name. Its premise is pure fun: siblings Becky and Joe Mellor, an eccentric Uncle Percy, time travel, mythic relics, and trouble waiting in almost every century. Readers who start with The Time Hunters, The Time Hunters and the Box of Eternity, or The Time Hunters and the Spear of Fate usually find the same things pulling them through. The books move fast. They mix history and legend without getting heavy about it. And they always seem to have one more impossible destination waiting around the corner.

He rarely hangs about for long.

As the series grew, Ashmore kept widening the world. Later books such as The Time Hunters and the Wraith's Revenge, The Time Hunters and the Odin Horn, and The Time Hunters and the Silent Child push the stakes higher and the mythology further, but they still hold on to the sibling teamwork and cliff-edge momentum that make the early books so readable. The series also found readers outside the UK, with translation rights sold in Brazil, Russia, and France.

Another side of Ashmore shows up in Bernard and the Bibble. He has said it may be the most important story he will ever write, because he began it just after his father, Bernard Ashmore, died from a heart condition. Even with that sad beginning, the book is not gloomy. It is warm, odd, funny, and hopeful, which tells you a lot about the emotional line he likes to walk.

He has also written outside the Time Hunters world with The Night They Nicked Saint Nick, a wild Christmas rescue story, and Zak Fisher and the Angel Prophecy, which turns toward angels, Templars, and a hidden war with Hell. Across these books, certain patterns keep returning: young people in over their heads, secret worlds tucked beside ordinary life, and characters who discover that courage usually arrives one messy decision at a time.

He writes for children, middle grade, and young YA readers, but his books often have enough wit and forward pull for adults reading alongside them. He likes big quests, old legends, strong hooks, and settings that matter, whether that means a stately home full of impossible animals, a magical underground kingdom, or a Cornish monastery hiding ancient truths.

These days Ashmore lives in Nantwich with his partner and children. He has also shared a few small personal facts that fit his public voice: he likes naan breads, blob fish, and old movies. It is an oddly specific trio, but then his books are built on the idea that the odd detail is often the one you remember.