Shrapnel

A gripping World War Two drama from the master storyteller and multi-award-winner, Robert Swindells.It's the height of World War Two. Britain is being ravaged by bombs and most young men are off fighting. Gordon wishes he was too. Maybe then he wouldn't get bullied for having a cowardly family . . . Gordon's dad didn't serve in World War One, and now his older brother Raymond isn't serving in World War Two - he's gone missing. When Gordon finds a revolver hidden in his house, he tracks Raymond down, but ends up involved in more than he'd bargined for. Raymond enlists Gordon's help to deliver and collect some 'packages'. But is the work actually for the government? And will it have terrible consequences?

“Masterfully, Swindells combines considerable psychological depth with a page-turning plot, delivered in manageable bites”

Daily Telegraph
A short but highly accomplished piece of writing from this rightly celebrated author. Full of convincing and illuminating period detail, including authentic and entertaining vernacular speech, this novel is fast paced and exciting to read The School Librarian
This is an exciting, atmospheric story which really draws you in - you can almost hear the bombs dropping Primary Times
Robert Swindells and World War II are once again a powerful, dramatic combination. It's a setting which fires his imagination - a setting he brings thrillingly alive. Shrapnel is his latest foray into the war, and it's another cracker, directly, engagingly written, with plenty of pace and consistently intriguing -- Phil Hewitt Bognor Regis Observer
A gripping story about what it is that truly makes a hero - with short and punchy chapters - Swindells expertly combines story with informative snippets of what life was like on the Home Front Stirling Observer

ROBERT SWINDELLS left school at fifteen to work on a local newspaper. At seventeen, he joined the RAF for three years, then trained and worked as a teacher. Now a full-time writer, he is the author of a number of bestselling titles for the Random House children's list. In 1994 he won the Carnegie Medal for STONE COLD (Hamish Hamilton), a teenage novel about a serial killer. RUBY TANYA won the Salford Children's Book Award 2005.

World War Two is raging, bombs rain down on Britain and brave young men fly their fighter planes against enormous odds. Gordon wishes he was one of them - not like his cowardly elder brother Raymond, who has left home and his job to do who knows what. When Gordon finds a revolver hidden in his parent's house, he decides to track his brother down. But finding Raymond leads to much more than Gordon had bargained for. His brother claims to be a secret governmental agent, and enlists Gordon's help in a mysterious enterprise. Gordon is keen to do his bit for the war effort, but is Raymond luring him into danger . . . ? A gripping wartime drama from master storyteller and multi award-winner Robert Swindells.

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