Paul Dowswell

Paul Dowswell

Author

Paul Dowswell writes award-winning historical fiction for young adults. He is best known for his Bloomsbury novel Auslander, which won the 2019 Trinity Schools Book Award and the 2011 Hamelin Associazione Culturale Book Prize and been shortlisted for 19 other UK and international book awards since 2009.

His Eleven Eleven won the 2013 Historical Association Young Quills Award and Sektion 20 won the 2012 Historical Association Young Quills Award. His Bloomsbury novels The Cabinet of Curiosities (2011), Red Shadow (2014), Bomber (2016) and his Barrington Stoke novel Wave (2017) have also been shortlisted for the Historical Association Young Quills Award. His 2005 novel Powder Monkey was shortlisted for the 2006 Trinity Schools Book Award. His non-fiction books have won or been shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award (twice), the Rhône-Poulenc Junior Prize for Science Books, and the TES Information Book Award. His Wolf Children was hailed as the 'best post-war children's novel since The Silver Sword by Amanda Craig. Dutch publishers Callenbach published his 14th novel, Out of Nowhere in 2021.

His books are sold throughout the English-speaking world and have been published in an additional ten languages. Although most are aimed at teenage readers, they have wide appeal and have been published abroad for the adult market. Most of his novels are set in the 20th Century and are primarily concerned with the First or Second World War, and life under totalitarian regimes. Paul Dowswell is also a prolific writer of non-fiction with over seventy titles to his name.

He is a regular visitor to schools all around the UK and Europe and has also been invited to Australia and South Africa to talk about his books and teach creative writing.

He is a Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and has recently worked for the Royal Literary Fund as a visiting fellow at Sheffield University and Leicester De Montfort.

His first adult non-fiction, Aliens - A Chequered History of Britain's Wartime Refugees, 1933 - 1950, will be published by Biteback in 2024.

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Paul Dowswell

Latest Release

The Great Revolt by Paul Dowswell

A thrilling historical adventure set during the English peasants' revolt of 1381.

It's 1381 and the king, Richard II, has imposed a new tax on the people. In the village of Aylesford, Tilda and her ploughman father were already struggling to make ends meet. As serfs they have no rights to move freely or earn wages for their work. Tilda is desperate for a better life than the village can offer, so when the villagers begin to rebel she is swept up in the excitement. Tilda and her father travel to London with the others to petition the king, but the peaceful rebellion they hoped for soon ignites into violence, mayhem and treachery. Tilda's fight for a better life is only just beginning... This page-turning adventure sheds new light on a period of history and will have readers gripped from start to finish.

    Other Publications

    by Paul Dowswell

      The Great Revolt
      Wolf Children
      Wave
      Bomber
      Red Shadow
      Eleven Eleven
      Sektion 20
      Cabinet Of Curiosities
      Ausländer
      Battle Fleet
      Prison Ship
      Powder Monkey