The Deptford Mice

#4393.98 in the official ranking · full ranking

Books 6 books Status Complete 1989–1995 Reading commitment Medium Robin Jarvis Last reviewed 2026-10-21

Overview

Robin Jarvis's Deptford books are dark fantasies for children, illustrated by the author, set among a community of mice living in the skirting boards of an old empty house in the London borough of Deptford, who follow the religion of the Green Mouse who brings Spring. Beneath the city, in the sewers, the rats worship Jupiter, a living god whom no one has ever seen beyond his blazing red eyes. In the original trilogy the young mouse Audrey Brown and her friends confront him and his return as a spectre bent on eternal winter; the prequel Deptford Histories go back to seventeenth-century London to tell how Jupiter came to be, to the war between bats and squirrels, and to the past of the old midshipmouse Thomas Triton. Jarvis wrote the first while working as a model-maker for television; it was runner-up for the 1989 Smarties Prize.

Dark fantasy · For Middle grade

Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking

The Deptford Mice Robin Jarvis

	Work	Year	Internal chron.	Canon	Rating
	The Dark Portal; ISBN recorded is the SeaStar Books US edition (2000).	1989	1	core	3.83 (2,652 ratings)
	The Crystal Prison; ISBN recorded is the SeaStar Books US edition (2001).	1989	2	core	4.03 (1,366 ratings)
	The Final Reckoning	1990	3	core	4.11 (1,282 ratings)

Audrey Brown and the mice of Deptford against the rat god Jupiter.

The Deptford Histories Robin Jarvis

	Work	Year	Internal chron.	Canon	Rating
	The Alchymist's Cat; Published in the United States (Chronicle Books, 2004) as The Alchemist's Cat.	1991	1	core	3.98 (973 ratings)
	The Oaken Throne	1993	2	core	4.22 (612 ratings)
	Thomas	1995	3	core	4.11 (391 ratings)

Prequels to The Deptford Mice.

Quick answers

• How many books are in The Deptford Mice? The Deptford Mice's Core Canon is 6 books.
• What is the reading order for The Deptford Mice? Publication order, starting with The Dark Portal. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
• Is The Deptford Mice finished? Complete (1989–1995).
• How much reading does The Deptford Mice take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 6 Core Canon books).
• How is The Deptford Mice ranked? #439 in this site's official ranking, based on 7,276 reader ratings across 6 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.

Why is it ranked #439?

Ranked #439 in the official ranking.

• Average reader rating of 3.98 across 6 core books.
• A smaller readership (7,276 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
• Less than 0.01 behind #438, The Halfblood Chronicles (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
• Below the top-10 average of 4.45.

How the ranking works →

Why explore this universe?

Well rated · 6 books · Complete · 7k ratings · Ranks #439 overall

Good choice if you want a moderate-length dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.

Reading order

Publication order (6 Core Canon books)

1. The Crystal Prison (1989)
2. The Dark Portal (1989)
3. The Final Reckoning (1990)
4. The Alchymist's Cat (1991)
5. The Oaken Throne (1993)
6. Thomas (1995)

Documented internal/story order

1. The Dark Portal (1989)
2. The Alchymist's Cat (1991)
3. The Crystal Prison (1989)
4. The Oaken Throne (1993)
5. The Final Reckoning (1990)
6. Thomas (1995)

Awards (verified)

• Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, 1989: finalist: The Dark Portal; Runner-up.

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Suggestions computed from what The Deptford Mice and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.

• Serafina Historical fantasy / Dark fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.08
• Coraline Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.13
• Black Jewels Dark fantasy / Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.15
• The Graveyard Book Dark fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.15

Official resources

• Wikipedia

Research details

Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.98 across 7,276 ratings on 6 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.

How do we know this?

Admission: Canon extension: The Deptford Mice and The Deptford Histories (Robin Jarvis) accepted 2026-10-21

Sources: (see source tier definitions)

• Wikipedia (The Deptford Mice) Tier 2
• Reader list on the rating platform (ratings with titles) Tier 2
• Something About the Author (via Encyclopedia.com) Tier 2

Last reviewed: 2026-10-21

Rule: Core Canon = The Deptford Mice trilogy (The Dark Portal, The Crystal Prison, The Final Reckoning, 1989-1990) and its prequels The Deptford Histories (The Alchymist's Cat, The Oaken Throne, Thomas, 1991-1995).

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