The Girl Who Raced the World – Nat Harrison

Published By: Piccadilly Press
Pages: 336
Released On: 25/09/2025

It is 1872 and, when Maggie Appleton’s beloved mother dies, she is left with nothing but a letter for a mysterious stranger called Passepartout. With nowhere else to turn, Maggie seeks out Passepartout and, in doing so, is drawn into an adventure beyond her wildest dreams. Together with Passepartout’s employer, the enigmatic Mr Phileas Fogg, Maggie journeys to Italy, India, Hong Kong, Japan and America, in a daring race against time to win the wager Mr Fogg has accepted.

But with a bank robber on the loose, an angry Inspector on their tail and unread secrets in her mother’s letter, Maggie soon discovers that there is much more at stake than keeping on schedule to win the bet. Who can she really trust – and will she ever find out where she truly belongs?

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Piccadilly Press for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I am always a bit iffy with people adapting a classic, but what I liked about this is that Nat wasn’t trying to write Around the World in Eighty Days. She’s taken the heart of the original, but created a completely original story, even if the backdrop to the story is the same

I loved her description of place. Our lead character Maggie visits places I’ve never been to, but she starts in London, a place I know well, living only about 20 minutes outside of it. But she’s managed to make it so evocative that it’s like I’m travelling to an unknown city, rather than on my doorstep, and I think that’s more impressive to me than the foreign countries.

I was immediately enraptured by this story, by the character, by the travels and the adventure.

We have the classic characters of Phileas Fogg, Jean Passepartout, and Detective Fix that anchors this story to the original, but she’s then introduced fresh new names to keep the story evolving. I loved the trio of Fogg, Passepartout, and Maggie, they’re like this little dysfunctional family and they’re great together.

There’s thrills, spills, shocks and surprises, adventure, fun and humour.

I don’t think it’s an either/or situation with this book. I think you can read the original and this one and get something completely different from them. Whilst the original might be thought of as an adult book now (I believe it was originally published as a children’s book) due to its old-fashioned language, this book gives younger readers a chance to discover and fall in love with the story.

I don’t believe this is a sequel to the original and it’s not necessarily necessary here, but I could see Nat writing some more adventures for our characters. It’ll be interesting to see where she goes from here.