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Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Northern Europe

• Scandinavia
• Great Britain
• Ireland

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  The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Steven Johnson brings to life, in all its stench and squalor, London town in the 19th century to tell the story of the horrifying cholera epidemic that swept the city in 1854. Part scientific investigation, part vivid historical recreation.

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  The Plantagenets by Dan Jones

  Price: £25.00    Add to Basket

  A vivid, gripping account of a family blessed and cursed in equal measure. The Plantagenets ruled England through eight generations between 1154 and 1399, and produced some of the most famous - and infamous - kings this country has ever seen.

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  A History of The Vikings by Gwyn Jones

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  This splendid narrative recounts the Vikings' exploits in war, trade and colonization, charting their prehistoric origins through to their symbolic defeat in 1066. Jones' history is rich and compelling and peppered with illustrations and maps.

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  Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones

  Price: £14.99    Add to Basket

  'Chav': one derogatory term that has come to stand for vast swathes of the British underprivileged. Jones examines the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature and questions the policies of both New Labour and the Tories. A damning report.

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  Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England by Anthony Julius

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A magisterial study of the long and troubled history of anti-Semitism in England, from the middle ages to the twenty-first century. Julius has already provoked fierce debate and, whether you agree with him or not, his determination to confront a difficult subject should surely be admired.

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  Iceland's 1100 Years: History of a Marginal Society by Gunnar Karlsson

  Price: £17.95    Add to Basket

  Professor of History at the University of Iceland, Karlsson here pulls together a lifetime of work to fashion a scholarly but highly readable history of this unique European state.

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  The Green Fool by Patrick Kavanagh

  Price: £10.99    Add to Basket

  Poet Patrick Kavanagh's account of a rural upbringing in the Irish village of Mucker. Battling with the village gossips, poverty and hardships, he captures a disappearing way of life with charm, humour and unsentimental observation.

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  Ireland's Misfortune by Elisabeth Kehoe

  Price: £12.99    Add to Basket

  A lively, definitive biography of Kitty O'Shea, the lover of Charles Stewart Parnell and a married woman vilified by Victorian society.

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  Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  One of the great philosophical religious polemics, hugely influential for both Protestant theology and the existentialist movement.

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  A Wiltshire Diary by Francis Kilvert

  Price: £4.99    Add to Basket

  Part of the wonderful English Journey series from Penguin, a small paperback with extracts from the thoughtful, humorous writings of 19th century vicar Francis Kilvert.

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  A Concise History of Finland by David Kirby

  Price: £15.99    Add to Basket

  More recent, dense, and comprehensive than Singleton's equivalent, this excellent volume will suit a reader seeking to learn all they can of Finnish history.

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  Family Britain by David Kynaston

  Price: £10.99    Add to Basket

  A captivating social history of Britain between 1951-1957. Drawn from the diaries of everyday members of the public, observations, famour memoirs and public records, the delightful detail brings to life the cultural, social and political atmosphere of these post-war years.

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  To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface by Olivia Laing

  Price: £16.99    Add to Basket

  An unusual and arresting first book, with echoes of W.G. Sebald, from journalist Olivia Laing. It charts a walk she made along the Ouse in Sussex, from source to sea, weaving together memoir, history and nature writing. The memory of Virginia Woolf, who drowned in this river in 1941, informs and haunts Laing’s dreamlike journey.

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  Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin

  Price: £22.50    Add to Basket

  A remarkable series of letters written to the English lecturer Monica Jones. Unwilling to marry her and unremittingly unfaithful, Larkin nevertheless treasured her as a muse and probably the love of his life. A unique insight into the man as well as the development of his poetry.

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  Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

  Price: £7.99    Add to Basket

  This warm, heart-felt memoir describes Laurie Lee's poor, yet idyllic childhood. The English novelist and poet was raised by his adored mother and three older half-sisters in a Cotswolds village at a time when 'the horse was still king.'

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  Some Country Houses and their Owners by James Lees-Milne

  Price: £4.99    Add to Basket

  Part of the wonderful Penguin English Journeys series, these are extracts from the diaries of James Lees-Milne during his time working for the National Trust. Scandalous, gossiping, entertaining and occasionally poignant as people give up the family houses they can no longer afford to keep. Great bedside reading.

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  Finland, Cultural Lone Wolf by Richard D. Lewis

  Price: £15.99    Add to Basket

  Lewis, who was in 1997 knighted for his services to the country, here traces Finland's origins, history, geography, values and culture. Filled with keen insight and a pleasing style, this book offers an unrivalled understanding of contemporary Finland, the self-proclaimed 'Lone Wolf' state.

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  On Brick Lane by Rachel Lichenstein

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  A cacophony of different voices, myths, history and reportage make up Rachel Lichtenstein's exuberant account of Brick Lane, home to Russian Jewish immigrants at the end of 19th century, then an Asian community up until the modern day influx of artists, vintage shops and million pound apartments.

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  At the Water's Edge by John Lister-Kaye

  Price: £18.99    Add to Basket

  John Lister-Kaye asks his readers to look for the wildness that exists all around them by taking us on a walk around the Scottish glen in which he lives. His careful and poetic observations are a joy.

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  Journey through a Small Planet by Emanuel Litvinoff

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  A fantastically evocative memoir of Emanuel Litvinoff's childhood in the Yiddish quarter of London's East End during the 1920s. Highly recommended.

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  The Churchills: A Family at the Heart of History by Mary S. Lovell

  Price: £10.99    Add to Basket

  A vivid and expansive account of the Churchill dynasty, from the Duke of Marlborough's empire-building in the 17th century, to Winston's death in 1965. By no means the first work to trace the Churchill family history, Lovell's biography is nevertheless refreshing in its effortless combination of domestic matters and public history.

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  The Unofficial Countryside by Ricard Mabey

  Price: £10.00    Add to Basket

  Little Toller Books has now published six books in this series about nature and rural life. Richard Mabey, the author of Beechcombings, explores the hidden life in Britain's sprawling urban landscape. He describes wildflowers found in dock yards, kestrels hovering above city parks and fox cubs tumbling by railway tracks. These are tales of nature's survival against the odds.

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  The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  An exquisitely written ode to the last remaining wilderness of Great Britain. Robert Macfarlane describes a series of journeys around the British Isles, part history, part evocative description and part nature lover's guide.

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  The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

  Price: £20.00    Add to Basket

  A sublime exploration of geography, memory, pilgrimage and adventure. Macfarlane sets out to follow the vast network of old paths and routes that criss-cross Britain and its waters, and connect them to countries and continents beyond. His tracks take him from the chalk downs of England to the bird-islands of the Scottish northwest, and from the disputed territories of Palestine to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas. Along the way he crosses paths with walkers of many kinds - wanderers, wayfarers, pilgrims, guides, shamans, poets, trespassers and devouts. He discovers that paths offer not just means of traversing space, but also of feeling, knowing and thinking.

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  Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre

  Price: £7.99    Add to Basket

  The historian and author of the thrilling and much admired biography of Eddie Chapman, Agent ZigZag, has returned to the Second World War with this brilliant story of Britain's success in convincing the Nazis of fake military plans planted on the body of a dead soldier.