Winter in Wartime

'A book we should all read' Michael Morpurgo

'Vivid, captivating... sure to inspire a new generation' R.M. Romero, author of The Dollmaker of Krakow

During the Second World War, the Netherlands is under Nazi control and acts of resistance are punishable by death. But when teenage Michiel is asked to take care of a wounded British Spitfire pilot, he doesn't think twice.

He joins the secret struggle against the Nazis, knowing all the while that spires are everywhere and once loose word could cost him his life...

Winter in Wartime is a thrilling, powerful adventure story, inspired by the author's own experiences as a child in Nazi-occupied Holland.

Part of the new Pushkin Children's Classics series of thrilling, magical and inspiring stories from around the world, which young readers will return to time and again.

Translated by Laura Watkinson.

Jan Terlouw (1931-2025) was born in the Netherlands. 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 is a full-time translator from Dutch, Italian and German, and has also translated Tonke Dragt's The Letter for the King, The Secrets of the Wild Wood, The Song of Seven and The Goldsmith and the Master Thief for Pushkin Children's Books. She lives in Amsterdam.