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The 2013 Winners are In!



Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Western Europe

• France
• Benelux
• Germany
• Austria
• Switzerland

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  Arnhem by Lloyd Clark

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  In 1944 several attempts were made to relieve the Allied troops in Normandy by dropping paratroopers behind enemy lines. In his new book, Clark carefully balances military detail with engaging personal stories to create a truly gripping description of the events.

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  Trautmann's Journey by Catrine Clay

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  The intriguing story of the former German soldier and member of the Hitler Youth who became an English football legend. On being captured by the allies and sent to a British POW camp, Trautmann embraced English life and became an unlikely hero when he played in the 1956 World Cup with a broken neck. A moving biography and a revealing portrait of the experiences of a generation of Germans.

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  The Flight Across the Ice by Patricia Clough

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  Clough retells the compelling and heartbreaking story of the East Prussian army's retreat from the Soviets in 1945. Fleeing on the backs of their specially bred horses, they had to dodge Soviet bombs, cross iced lagoons, with no shelter and little food, trying to keep both themselves and their superb animals alive.

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  My 'Dam Life by Sean Condon

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  Australian humorist and travel writer Condon spent three years in Amsterdam with his half-Dutch wife, remaining largely unemployed and getting into occasional mischief to alleviate his melancholy. By no means a masterpiece, this witty and unaffected memoir nonetheless offers some lovely moments.

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  Paris: After the Liberation 1944-1949 by Antony Beevor & Artemis Cooper

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  An outstanding and absorbing exposition of the upheaval and recrimination that overwhelmed the city in the wake of Nazi occupation. Exploring all strata of society and every strand of everyday life, the authors provide a lively and enjoyable account.

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  Metrostop Paris by Gregor Dallas

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  A rather eccentric, enchanting and beautifully-written collection of true tales about different stops on the Paris Metro.

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  Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington

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  This delightful travelogue follows intrepid English retirees Terry and Monica Darlington as they sail their canal narrowboat across the Channel and down to the Mediterranean. Charming, hilarious and highly recommended.

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  The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris by Alicia Drake

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  Drake portrays deftly the rivalry between Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, which played out against a heady Parisian backdrop of intrigue, infidelity, debauchery and addiction. Well researched and fiercely readable.

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  The Man Who Outshone the Sun King: Ambition, Treachery & Triumph in the Reign of Louis XIV by Charles Drazin

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  Audacious aesthete and finance minister to the king, Nicolas Foucquet suffered one of French history's most spectacular falls from grace when he was charged with embezzlement and treachery by Louis XIV. Drazin here tells his incredible story with skill and compassion.

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  French Children Don't Throw Food: Parenting Secrets from Paris by Pamela Druckerman

  Price: £15.00    Add to Basket

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  Caesar's Vast Ghost: Aspects of Provence by Lawrence Durrell

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  Durrell's last book is a tribute to Provence, where he lived for 30 years. Part memoir, travelogue, history and poetry collection, it is a highly personal and unusual work in which he captures as brilliantly as ever the spirit of the landscape.

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  Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769-1799 by Philip Dwyer

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  For Napoleon aficionados seeking something more substantial than Johnson's brief life there is Dwyer's vast and utterly superb account of Bonaparte's formative years. We eagerly await its forthcoming sequel.

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  The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers by Ted Jones, Ed.

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  A fascinating companion, arranged by region, that introduces the great literary heritage of the Cote d'Azur. Fitzgerald, de Maupassant, Hemingway, Wells, Wilde and Joyce all make entertaining appearances. In fact, there appear to be very few literary giants who have not graced a Riviera beach at one time or other...

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  Netherlands Culture Shock by Hunt Janin & Ria van Eil

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  Invaluable for anyone making a permanent move and not at all superfluous for visitors, this well researched and presented book provides crucial advice and insight into the minuteia of Dutch life.

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  The Pity of it All by Amos Elon

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  A social history of the Jews in Germany between 1743 and 1933 which focuses on a selective group of influential figures including Marx. A refreshing account which explores a rich history and the growth of anti-semitism and yet stops short of the Holocaust.

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  Chantemesle: A Normandy Childhood by Robin Fedden

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  A lyrical distillation of landscape and feeling, redolent with nostalgia and graced with a piercing clarity, in which nature becomes a character almost in its own right. Beautiful and highly recommended.

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  On the Brink by Jonathan Fenby

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  A fascinating portrait of contemporary France: the French psyche, its economics, politics, religion, the lot. At times a little academic and turgid but overall an enlightening and insightful read.

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  Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon

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  A collection of the brief, wry observations sent anonymously to the French Newspaper Le Matin by Felix Feneon throughout 1906. A snapshot of French history as well as a clever and entertaining read.

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  Civilization: The Six Killer Apps of Western Power by Niall Ferguson

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  This provocative history of the Western world, from the "miserable", plague-ravaged 15th century to the present day, considers what it was about the civilisation of the West that enabled it to trump the opulent empires of the Orient. According to Ferguson, the West developed a number of "killer applications" that the rest of the world lacked: democracy, medicine, science, competition and a protestant work ethic. Whether or not you dispute his daring claims, Ferguson's zeal is compelling and his whistle-stop tour of civilisation is extraordinary.

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  Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor

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  Introduced by Karen Armstrong, this is a lovely edition of Patrick Leigh Fermor's account of visiting two French monasteries in the 1950s. A thoughtful, closely observed work which describes the monastic way of life and those who choose it, while exploring the history of European monasticism.

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  1492 The Year Our World Began by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

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  This very readable history charts the influence of the Enlightenment in establishing a new world order, the spread of global travel, wealth, and medicine, which swept away the middle-ages.

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  Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon by M.F.K. Fisher

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  In 1929, long before she became one of the finest food writers of her age, Fisher embarked upon a three year stay in Burgundy's provincial capital. This delicious work of recollection, published just before her death, evokes crisply and candidly the education she received in love, life and gastronomy, conjuring a France long gone.

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  Two Towns in Provence by M.F.K. Fisher

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  Collecting two of her finest works, Fisher here moves away from the food writing with which she made her name and instead displays acute perception in the interplay of landscape and memory. Writing on Aix-en-Provence ('Map of Another Town') and Marseille ('A Considerable Town') she conjures a vivid sense of place in which personal reflection is fused deftly with the wider textures of history.

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  Paris Was Yesterday by Janet Flanner

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  Collects Flanner's famous 'Letters from Paris', a column in The New Yorker which she began in 1925. Together they give a fascinating view of the city in its golden hour, and the quality of the writing is sensational.

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  Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps by Fergus Fleming

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  Fleming's account of the brave and determined men who conquered the Alps is impeccably researched and infectiously told, with a natural charm and vigour that reflects the characters it portrays. Great stuff.