An award-winning children's classic. A gripping story about the horrors and dilemmas of war

As the Second World War approaches its end, the Netherlands is still under Nazi control and any acts of resistance are punishable by death.

But when fifteen-year-old Michiel is asked to take care of a British Spitfire pilot he doesn’t think twice. He joins the secret struggle against the Nazis, working every day to end the occupation and protect those in danger from it, knowing all the time that spies are everywhere and one loose word could cost him his life…

Winter in Wartime is a thrilling, powerful and inspiring adventure story, based on the author’s own experiences as a child in Nazi-occupied Holland.

Jan Terlouw was born in the Netherlands in 1931. He worked as a nuclear physicist in countries across the world before entering politics as a representative of the Dutch D66 party in 1971. Alongside his political career he has written many successful children's books, including Winter in Wartime which was based on his own memories of the Nazi occupation. It won the Golden Pen Prize for the best Dutch children's book in 1973 and has since been adapted for film and stage.

Laura Watkinson

Book translations