BUY FROM BLACKWELL’S
BUY FROM FIVE LEAVES
Blue Watch
Syros (France) 2014
Troika Books, October 2019
An adventure story for 12-16 year olds (and others!) set during the London Blitz and dedicated to the memory of my father,
who served in the Fire Brigade throughout WW2.
It’s 1940. The heart of the Blitz. Wave after wave of enemy bombers each night over London. Fifteen year-old Jack has been evacuated to the country, leaving men behind like his father – a fireman in Blue Watch – risking their lives to prevent the city going up in flames. Anxious to play his part, Jack runs off back to London and becomes a fire brigade messenger, criss-crossing from blazing building to blazing building as enemy bombs begin to fall. When, during an air-raid, he meets and befriends Lilith, a young refugee, Jack thinks he has found a little peace, but that peace is soon threatened in a dangerous and unexpected way.
A tense novel of adventure and courage, based around the experiences of John Harvey’s own father, who served with the London Fire Brigade during World War Two.
“Blue Watch, My father and the Blitz”…
Nick’s Blues
Syros (France), 2005; Five Leaves, 2008
Mattioli 1885 (Italy) 2009
On his 16th birthday, Nick Harman’s mother gives him a box of things left by his father, who committed suicide when Nick was just seven years old. This sets Nick off in search of the reasons for his father’s death, a search that takes place against a background of shifting allegiances, involving the gangs on the housing estate where he lives and his first serious involvement with a girl.
“A fine novel about growing up by one of the masters of British crime fiction.”
Le Monde