It was shortlisted for the 2002 Stockton Children's Book of the Year Award. The German translation by Harry Rowohlt won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2003. The book is essentially a comical adventure about Eddie Dickens who has to go live with his Great Uncle and Great Aunt at Awful End as his parents have the yellow fever. Philip Ardagh uses clever puns and uses ambiguity of sentences to create a situation comedy. One paragraph of interest is as follows,'Eddie took a seat next to Aunt. "Put that seat right back into its place!", screamed Aunt. So Eddie put the seat back in its place and sat down.'