Cirrus@Austlit

'Rodney Rowbottom feels alone. His mother treats him like a baby. His father is too busy managing a huge experimental farm, where scientists conduct research into genetically modified crops, to spend time with his son. At school Rodney is stalked by Ben Houlihan - the local bully - and picked on because of his habit of fading away. But Rodney's spirits improve when he meets Mrs Strangeways and discovers the reason for his fading. She teaches him to disappear and reappear at will, which both thwarts and humiliates Houlihan.

'Rodney's fading is a symptom of his ability to switch between Earth and the parallel universes of futuristic Llandringodd and primitive Llondieval. Both are terrible places. In both of them, Rodney becomes embroiled in adventures from which he may not escape with his life...' (Publisher blurb)