Older Children – Nicholas Walker https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk Bestselling author, scientist, teacher, dance and karate instructor Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:35:08 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/nick-100x100.jpg Older Children – Nicholas Walker https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk 32 32 Agony on the Ice https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/agony-on-the-ice/ Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:35:01 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=666 The ninth in the popular series about the four paranoid ice dancers. Samantha collapses at the World Championships and is rushed away to hospital where it seems the stress has been too much for her. She finishes with Alex and it seems she has finished with skating as well! Morris retires seemingly leaving Benjamin and Belinda in the wilderness and even Alex is off dating a famous pop star…is it finally the end for our superstars?

]]> The Way To Wimbledon https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/the-way-to-wimbledon-2/ Sun, 09 May 2021 00:29:52 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=622 Penny Sutton (Bad Penny) lives for tennis and everything else has to take second place: home, school, friends and especially her boyfriend Brian. Penny is good but wild and her coach knows she will never get anywhere unless she calms down and plays profession tennis…and he should know he was a British Champion once. Then a new girl arrives out of nowhere and destroys Penny in a local tournament and suddenly she is taking everything from Penny: her wins, her friends, her job, even Brian!

This exciting story rips the top off tennis and reveals all the maneuvering and dirty tricks that go on and all the heartbreak and pain that these players go through on their journey to Wimbledon!

]]> Last Tango https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/last-tango/ Fri, 07 May 2021 00:40:54 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=608 This is the follow-up to Dancing With The Enemy the faction book about the children’s resistance group on Jersey during World War Two. The end of the war has finally arrived and Rex, Susan and David have survived and are feted by the security services of the British Army, if not by their parents. But Rex is only interested in one thing…what has happened to Marianna? He gets a boat to France and starts searching for her but is quickly interned by the American Army in Fresnes the very prison Marianna was taken to. Susan and David are furious at being left behind and chase after him but are just too late as they arrive at the prison just after Rex has escaped…but Rex has discovered that a girl escaped from the train taking her to a concentration camp and nothing is going to stop him finding out if it was Marianna!

All the characters in this book are based on real people and all the events that happen are true. The buildings, camps, prisons and other locations are all exactly as they were in 1945!

]]> Defeat of the Kraal https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/defeat-of-the-kraal/ Fri, 07 May 2021 00:32:16 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=605 The fifth in this popular series and now the Vadors have really grown to nearly a thousand and are beating the Kraal on all fronts. But now comes the real challenge, can they take the Citadel? And then what for the Vadors? For Tom and Jessica? For Kimba and Mac? For all the children who have been fighting for so long? Do they settle for a mundane, safe life?

]]> The Way To Wimbledon https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/the-way-to-wimbledon/ Fri, 07 May 2021 00:20:43 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=602 Penny Sutton (Bad Penny) lives for tennis and everything else has to take second place: home, school, friends and especially her boyfriend Brian. Penny is good but wild and her coach knows she will never get anywhere unless she calms down and plays profession tennis…and he should know he was a British Champion once. Then a new girl arrives out of nowhere and destroys Penny in a local tournament and suddenly she is taking everything from Penny: her wins, her friends, her job, even Brian!

This exciting story rips the top off tennis and reveals all the maneuvering and dirty tricks that go on and all the heartbreak and pain that these players go through on their journey to Wimbledon!

]]> Spiral Staircase https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/spiral-staircase/ Sat, 12 Sep 2020 00:26:43 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=385           The white shape stormed around the room thrashing against the walls, the floor, even the roof, again and again it hurled past the children until at last it seemed to sense there was someone there and it roared up in front of them. A blast of stinging cold air hit them like a fist, worse than any force ten gale. Disgusting went flying, howling with fear, but nobody could hear him above the appalling noise the Scream was making. The other children grabbed for the wall and managed to stay on their feet. The Scream seemed to look at them then it faded back a couple of feet, as though studying them from a different angle. Then even over all the din they heard the sound of the chapel clock next door chime 10.15.           The Scream heard it too, for instantly it screeched right across the attic going faster and faster, then it seemed to spin round and round like a whirlwind becoming narrower and narrower and denser and denser until it became so dense that it actually became solid.           'It's turning into someone,' Victoria groaned. The shimmering form suddenly focused and became still and the white figure of a girl came into view.           'It's the girl from the room,' whispered Sally. 'The second one.' But no one answered, everything had suddenly become quiet and still because the ghost had started to walk!           Slowly, precisely, the figure of the girl stepped towards them across the wooden floor and each footfall echoed making a noise much louder than the slight figure suggested. After what felt an age the figure reached the edge of the floor and she raised her head to stare at the children still pressed right back against the wall. Two blazing eyes that seemed to burn them in a cold blue flame seared across the room. Then the beautiful mouth in the beautiful face opened and a thin scream came out and the children screamed with her, and the scream dissolved her back into the white cloud that came hurtling towards them like a runaway lorry.           Again and again the Scream hit them, buffeting them like they were in a hurricane, smashing them to the floor in a heap as it vented its fury. Suddenly it was quiet again and the stunned children risked a glance. The white figure of the girl had appeared again right beside them and stood glaring at them from only centimetres away.           Victoria felt Disgusting whimpering at the bottom of the pile and a feeling of protectiveness reminded her she was in charge. Shaking, she forced herself to her feet, pushing her knees back so her quivering legs would support her.           'What do you want?' she said and her voice stumbled and fumbled with the words. The figure didn't reply, the blazing eyes mocking her.           'I said what do you want?' she said, her voice steadier. Then to Disgusting who was trying to reach her hand. 'It's all right, Dizzy.' She took a step forwards. 'You're frightening my brother,' she said and as she said it the white figure sprang forward and an almost solid hand slapped her across the face.           'Ow,' said Victoria, more annoyed than hurt. Now the Scream had started again and was hurtling around the children this time thumping and crashing into them, pushing down Daniel who was trying to stand up beside Victoria. But Victoria was already up and she forced herself to stay that way holding tightly on to the wall.           'Leave us alone!' she said bravely and letting go of the wall she stepped forward to face the girl. The Scream seemed to go mad and this time, concentrated on Victoria, hurtling round and round her once more closing up like a whirlwind, becoming tighter and tighter, only this time Victoria was in the middle. Daniel was now on his feet again and trying to grab her, but it was like trying to grab a waterfall, solid, but nothing to actually hold on to.           The Scream's howling rose even louder until it hurt their ears and then in a single split second it shot through the open doorway and away up the passageway and Victoria was gone with it.  ]]> This is a modern ghost story for children by a bestselling author. The gripping story is set in the haunted house in Penzance where the writer lived for over ten years, one of the most famous haunted houses in Britain…mentioned in Daphne Du Maurier’s book Vanishing Cornwall.
Daniel and Sally have learned to live with the bizarre happenings in their house: the whirlwind like screams that hurtle around their bedrooms, the sounds of footsteps across the ceiling as the ghost walks in the attic, the things that go missing. Then Victoria, Cassie and David (Disgusting) come to stay and Victoria leads the children up into the attics to search for the ghost. The children get sucked back into the past where the events that have unleashed the ghost are slowly revealed to them. Then Victoria is taken by the ghost and the rest of the children have to find a way of rescuing her. The unnerving Cassie, who has strange powers herself, leads the children into a final battle with the ghost in a bid to rescue her sister.
Very funny and often light-hearted the story is still very frightening in places.
Many of the scenes were witnessed by the author and his family while they lived there and all the children exist in real life…and every night at nine o clock the ghost still walks to this day!

]]> Dancing With the Enemy https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/dancing-with-the-enemyi-came-across-a-true-story-about-the-channel-islands-during-world-war-two-and-couldnt-get-it-out-of-my-mind-dancing-in-the-dark-is-the-result-of-that-obsession-when-the/ Fri, 11 Sep 2020 02:14:34 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=378 I came across a true story about the Channel Islands during World War Two and couldn’t get it out of my mind. Dancing in the Dark is the result of that obsession when the only opposition to the occupation by the German Army came from the children!

 

This novel is set in Jersey, during World War Two, when The Channel Islands were occupied by Germany. It is very much based on fact: all the buildings, streets, munitions and army terms are accurate, and all the incidents that take place in the novel are taken from incidents that actually happened during the war. After the first year of occupation the only resistance to the Germans came from the children of the island, indeed at one time the schools had to close because virtually all the teenagers were locked up in the local prison…this is the basis for the story.

There are four main characters in the story, Rex, Sue, David and Marianne. The first three are old friends, David and Sue are twins and Rex is their leader and Sue has a crush on Rex. Sue is very outspoken while David is a quiet follower of the others. Rex is the driving force, he leads the children of Jersey and is very brave, enjoying dangerous confrontations with the Germans. Marianne is the good girl of the school and very much a loner, she always obeys the teachers and the Germans and Rex finds himself having to act as her protector from the other children when they begin to view her as a traitor.

One night Rex finds out that Marianne is hiding a family of Jews in the hills and brings in the other two to help her. To their astonishment, the girl who spends her nights working in her father’s hotel: Dancing With The Enemy, is her own one-woman resistance group, receiving orders from Britain. Sue is wildly jealous of Marianne’s growing relationship with Rex but is forced to subdue it when they join forces. Rex’s group, who, up till then, had merely crept around painting Victory Vs everywhere, now find themselves involved in a much more dangerous business: smuggling fugitives, disarming mines and spying.

The novel is full of action and emotion, but the story is about the realities of war: the sacrifices that have to be made. But it is not a sad book, it is full of the humour that dangerous situations bring and the accelerated relationships that take place in time of war.

 

 

 

]]> Kisses in the Dark https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/kisses-in-the-dark/ Thu, 10 Sep 2020 01:43:12 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=369 The dramatic love story of a white boy and a Pakistani girl in Tower Hamlets. Written by best-selling author Nicholas Walker who was himself a teacher in Tower Hamlets. Hilbert and Shamira fall in love and have to battle against huge prejudices from the community, her family, the school and even The National Front. This hard hitting novel reveals the truth of schools teaching on the front line and the battles that children from minor ethnic backgrounds have to fight every day just to fit into modern British society. Shocking at times and a tender love story at others this is a novel written by an author who knows what teaching in inner city schools is really like…not for the innocent!

]]> Black Belt https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/product/black-belt/ Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:35:59 +0000 https://www.nicholaswalker.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=284 Best-selling gripping novel about a boy and a girl who do karate. William goes to a new school where he falls foul of the classroom idiot, the beautiful but barmy Jaimey. She does karate but it turns out so does William who is already a black belt and a champion. Their sparring goes on at school as well as in the club. Written by a best-selling author who is himself Chief Instructor of a martial arts organisation this is the novel that sold all around the world.

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