Muriel got up from the bed and knelt down next to me. Her long hair fell into my face, and tickled my nose. She said, 'Our job is to protect you, and to keep the wolf from the door.' I felt my heart jump. I felt something between excitement and fear. 'Are there wolves here?' 'Oh no! It's just an expression. It means to eat properly, and not be hungry.' 'Oh, that's all right then.

' But I saw a wolf, on the edge of the woods. He was sitting and watching me, and only moving to twitch his nose and lick his lips. I wondered if Mummy had shut the gate. Pippa Dunbar is (almost) nine and a half. Her life has changed dramatically, with a new home in a village, a new school, new friends, and two adults to love and care for her. But despite this idyllic lifestyle, Pippa is constantly aware of The Wolf lurking in the woods who, at any moment, might leap out and devour everyone. The Wolf at the Door is the second in the My True Nature series of novels, exploring attachment, love and loss in Britain in the 1960s and '70s.