5 children's books set during historical events

Author Lindsay Galvin recommends five thrilling books set around real historical events. 

Every time I set out to write a new historical story, I’m drawn to the big events we’ve all heard about, but I love to focus on the smaller personal stories. So when I wrote about the sinking of the Titanic in Call of the Titanic I used the point of view of one of the teenage stewards working on board. In my latest book, The Great Phoenix of London, my character explores what it might have been like to be caught up in the angry mobs fleeing the fire and looking for someone to blame.  

I love to read these kinds of stories too, and here are some recommendations that get you right into the centre of the real historical action. 

World War II must be one of the historical events that has been most written about. I love that in Rosie Raja: Churchill’s Spy, by Sufiya Ahmed, a Muslim girl is the main character and colonial history is explored as she ends up in occupied France as a spy. 

Black Powder by Ally Sherrick is set around the true events of The Gunpowder Plot in 1605. The plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament was foiled, but the scandal was such that we still celebrate it to this day with Bonfire Night. This is a high-stakes adventure where twelve-year-old Tom is given an impossible choice: to save his father’s life, he is drawn into treason. 

Also set in the 17th century, The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll explores a much lesser-known disaster when the sea flooded 25 miles inland in 1607.  

Illustration from the Somerset Tsunami

Patrice Lawrence’s Tudor-set Diver’s Daughter is a thrilling unique adventure based around the true story of the African free-divers who attempted to salvage the treasures of the legendary Mary Rose. It is told through the lens of a mother stolen from Mozambique and living in London with her daughter at a time when the population was much more racially diverse than the history books would suggest. 

Tom Palmer’s After the War is a moving story about the Windemere Boys who, after surviving the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, are brought to rural England to recover. The trauma is palpable as these characters await news of their families.  

The Great Phoenix of London by Lindsay Galvin is out now.