Books with author John Dover Wilson

Alec Shorecross is 14 and has already left school to work in the local mine. He's paid 13 cents an hour to toil in the underground darkness. When war breaks out, Alec ships overseas in search of a different life and a way to contribute. He dreams of doing something heroic but soon Alec finds himself underground again. While soldiers and aircraft engage in battles on the ground and in the sky, down, deep below the surface Alec joins the invisible crew of combatants who risk their lives building tunnels so that they can place mines beneath enemy territory. This dramatic and realistic story shows us a little-known side of war and the role of one brave and determined young man.

Jim Hay is 15, thinks war is a glorious adventure, and cannot wait for his turn to fight. But as his father boldly marches off to battle in August 1914, Jim must be content to records his thoughts and dreams in his journal. All too soon, however, Jim’s simple life begins to unravel. His father is killed in action, his mother suffers a breakdown, and when he at last joins up, it is as much to find a refuge as it is to seek glory. What Jim discovers in the trenches of France is enough to dispel any romantic view of the war. And while his longing for adventure is replaced by a basic need to survive, the final tragic outcome is one he never could have imagined.

This novel by John Wilson, the sequel to The Flags of War, continues the adventures of two cousins, Walt and Nate McGregor, and of Sunday, the former slave on Nate's father's plantation. They have survived the carnage at Shiloh. But the war rages on. Nate returns to the family plantation to find it in ruins. In despair he turns back to the only life he knows -- the army. Meanwhile, Walt and Sunday re-enlist to fight for their beliefs, no matter how great the danger. The three young men meet again at the notorious Libby prison in Virginia: Nate as a guard, Sunday as a slave and Walt as a prisoner. Their grim reunion at Libby -- where prison walls divide them -- highlights the complexity of a war that tore a nation apart. Can the three battle-scarred soldiers hope for anything more than survival?

John Wilson has created a compelling YA novel based on the folk hero, Albert &quot:Ginger&quot: Goodwin, also known as &quot:Red&quot: Goodwin from the colour of his hair and his radical social ideas. Goodwin was originally a miner from the north of England, who came to Canada and took up the cause of the working man during the Trail smelter strike and at the coal mines on Vancouver Island. His ideas were eventually considered so dangerous that a special constable was hired to hunt him down in the forest near Cumberland. Wilson tells the story of a young boy, Will Ryan, sent out from England after his father was killed in WW I, to live with his uncle, a mine manager, at Cumberland. Through a chance meeting in the forest with Red Goodwin, young Will has all his ideas turned upside down, especially when he sees first-hand how the miners are treated in the community and at the pit face. Soon Will finds himself caught between the demands of his uncle, his loyalty to the memory of his father, and the new vision of Goodwin who argues that the European war between Britain and Germany has parallels with the war between the mine owners and the mine workers. In an exciting story, filled with sudden turns and tragic events, young Will discovers that he must make a choice, a choice that will change his life forever."A masterful storyteller." —The Globe & Mail

In this dramatic young adult novel, Ian sets off in an open boat after an argument with his father, only to find himself swept out to the Pacific. Drifting and suffering from hypothermia, the young teen is visited by family ghosts who share stories of his ancestors and Canada’s pioneer past. Led by Emily, Ian’s great grandmother, a succession of long-dead ancestors and local characters appear on the boat telling him their stories—the stories of pioneer life on the Gulf Islands—bringing understanding of his family and inspiring Ian to persevere until dawn brings rescue.

Short-listed for the 2002 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Norma Fleck Award Norman Bethune was a doctor who devoted his life to helping others and whose story is a remarkable one, cut short by his early death in China in 1938. This biography in our Stories of Canada series traces his life from his childhood spent moving around Ontario as a preacher’s son to his experiences in the First World War and his crusades to find a cure for tuberculosis and to promote health care in Canada. But Bethune is most famous for the time he spent fighting Fascism through his profession of healing in Spain and China during the late 1930s. His story inspires us to believe that we can change the world through our actions.

"Kill them all. God will know his own." These were the orders given to crusading Catholic knights before they stormed the walls of the heretic Cathar city of Beziers in 1209. The historic death toll was 10,000, and here author John Wilson imagines that among the carnage two childhood friends are forever affected. Peter assists the mysterious priest who leads the crusade; John, with the help of a heretic woman, barely escapes with his life. As the brutal war expands, Peter and John are caught up on opposite sides of the search for a secret that might change the world. When their paths cross later, both are fully committed to seeking the secret in their own ways — John in the exotic world of Muslim Spain and Peter at the center of Catholic power in Rome. Wilson richly evokes the tempestuous world of the Crusades, and two young men's place in it, in this heady mix of action, adventure, and intrigue.

In this compelling sequel to Weet, Eric, his sister Rose and their faithful dog Sally find themselves back in a familiar, albeit frightening, world. Weet, enlightened by what his time-travelling friends had taught him, feels a longing to discover what mysteries about his people lie beyond the terrifying Fire Mountain. Weet resolves to set off on an adventurous quest to uncover the truth. With the invaluable help of his friends from the distant future, Weet finds an ancient colony of ancestral beings oddly different from himself. A true hero, Weet uncovers his people's history and plots a course for a bright new future.