The evil seed, Joanne Harris, Black Swan, £6.99

REVISITING the past can be a dangerous business, something to which Joanne Harris herself alludes in her introduction to The Evil Seed, the reissue of her first published novel.

It's certainly easy money for the publishing house, which can guarantee that anything with Harris' name on the cover will be lapped up by a fiercely loyal fan base. But for Harris herself, it's a brave move indeed.

There can be few authors who, having become a literary treasure and a semi-permanent fixture of the bestseller lists, would relish dusting off their maiden effort for all to see.

It can be read as a curiosity, an insight into Harris' early influences — the Author's Note gives a charming account of the book's origins from her student days studying Modern and Mediaeval Languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

And it's true, Harris' inexperience is laid bare in places with passages of flowery text that make you suspect she is trying just a bit too hard.

But this is no more than you would expect from a fledgling and there are hints of the wonderful things to come, the rich, sensuous prose synonymous with her best works Chocolat, Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange.

The dark gothic subtext, in the same vein as the following novel Sleep Pale Sister, also reprinted in 2004, is distinctly less satisfying than the warm myths, magic and small-town rural France of her later works.

But Harris' mastery lies in the storytelling, the spinning of a cracking yarn.

And what may start out as a curiosity, soon becomes another irresistible page-turner.

Emma Thorne