Jill Paton Walsh Books in Order

Eight stories revisit Anglo-Saxon life during an era of northern raids and competing religious beliefs. The collection follows a world where pagan traditions and Christianity struggle for recognition, bringing the tensions of early English history into narrative form.

Hengest looks back on a life caught between the competing claims of Jutes, Danes, and Frisians in fifth-century northern Europe. His recollections explore how loyalty, vengeance, and sworn obligations can collide when survival depends on alliances with former enemies.

Teenage runaways Bill and Julie refuse evacuation and struggle to survive in London during the Blitz. Their attempt to live independently amid the bombing brings friendship and first love, while war steadily exposes the limits of their fragile refuge.

Boarding school boy John and London evacuee Pat come from different worlds, but form a friendship during the Second World War. Determined to help soldiers stranded at Dunkirk, they plan to take a boat across the dangerous English Channel.

Athenian statesman Themistokles devotes his life to protecting his city against Persian attack and rival Greek powers. His political judgment and complicated attachment to Aristides unfold amid shifting alliances, as serving Athens increasingly demands decisions that could threaten his standing.

During a summer at their grandmother's Cornish home, Madge and Paul confront changes in their relationship and the approach of adulthood. Madge's interest in a blind professor deepens her awareness of suffering, while family secrets disturb their familiar world.

Adam discovers an axe-like stone that becomes his constant companion and seems to trouble his dreams. Seeing a caged gorilla’s fear, he offers it his treasure, setting off an unexpected encounter between captivity, sympathy, and escape.

Shipwrecked and alone, an English boy reaches Emperor Constantine's court and is treated as a good-luck omen. Required to remain near the ruler, he witnesses the mounting threats and divided loyalties surrounding Constantinople as Turkish forces close in.

Young Ra develops a new role making tools for his Stone Age tribe, but loses the ability to hunt. When the tribe abandons him, the skill they failed to value becomes essential to his survival.

Fascinated by the canal boats passing her comfortable home, a young girl leaves her familiar surroundings and finds herself traveling as part of a crew. Life aboard a narrowboat introduces a different world from the household she wanted to escape.

An illustrated account explores the people who inhabited Britain before written history. Paton Walsh considers their cultures and achievements, tracing the contributions of successive generations to the islands they shaped and the later societies that inherited their work.

During a Cornish summer, Madge grows close to Patrick Tregeagle, a troubled man caring for his disabled sister Molly. Their developing bond unfolds beside philosophical discussions and family tensions, as experiences of love and loss challenge their understanding of life.

Demeas helps restore his family's olive farm after Persian devastation but longs to join the rebuilding of Athens. Finding an injured messenger sends him racing toward Sparta with news for Themistokles, whose political maneuvering depends on the city's unfinished walls.

An abused child called Creep escapes the closet where his mother has hidden him and takes refuge in a boat. Traveling into the Industrial Revolution, he encounters exploited young workers and discovers companionship amid conditions that echo his own suffering.

Three linked stories follow children caught up in the career of Athenian statesman Themistokles. A refugee girl, an olive farmer's son, and a young princess encounter war and political danger as their ordinary lives intersect with ancient Greece's larger conflicts.

Born in England, Dulcie feels excluded when her friends David and Leslie share memories of Jamaica, the home they knew before moving. Their different experiences raise questions about belonging, friendship, and what it means to call somewhere home.

Pattie and her family leave a dying Earth to establish a settlement on another planet. With crops failing and supplies dwindling, the refugees must find a way to survive in a beautiful but unfamiliar world.

In 1665 Eyam, shepherd girl Mall Percival's ordinary life is disrupted when a parcel from London brings plague to her village. As illness spreads, the residents decide to isolate themselves, confronting the cost of protecting surrounding communities from infection.

James struggles to adjust to a new school and life in the Fens. An elderly neighbor asks him to recover a lost lucky object, drawing the boy into a task that brings unexpected danger.

Across four periods in an English town's history, children set out to deliver objects to their grandparents and lose them along the way. Each misplaced object connects to another child's discovery, linking changing surroundings with familiar family relationships.

In 1950s Oxford, student Tessa, academic Ben, and priest Theodore share a Catholic community. Tessa and Theodore's chaste attachment unsettles his faith, while her relationship with Ben and their continuing connection force all three to confront belief, love, and commitment.

Long after industrial civilization has collapsed, Cal and Dio visit a dying elder before their arranged wedding. His mysterious charge to guard a treasure draws them into a journey across Europe carrying a flame inherited from a barely understood past.

Two intertwined narratives draw on Mozart's Cosi fan tutte to examine love and infidelity. Students studying the opera and an attempt to reenact its plot for a wager bring questions of fidelity out of performance and into personal relationships.

Birdy helps her father Papajack operate a ferry across a river and out to sea. When three ghostly passengers summon them toward an unfamiliar island, her ability to see what her father cannot turns the crossing into an unusual adventure.

Lighthouse keeper's daughter Grace Darling joins her father in a dangerous rescue after a steamship wreck in 1838. The deed brings nationwide admiration, but also local resentment, forcing Grace to confront the conflicting demands of celebrity, conscience, and community.

Gary joins a group of girls playing the traditional playground game Queenie. Through the experience, he discovers that their games offer more enjoyment than he expected, challenging his assumptions about the way other children play.

Gemma is unsure about her new school and misses the familiar world she left behind. Joining the other children in a game of Wolf offers a way to begin feeling part of her new surroundings.

Grandma returns from journeys around the world with memories of remarkable sights, but her growing granddaughter Madeleine offers a different kind of wonder. This picture book connects faraway discoveries with the changes and pleasures of a child's early life.

Birdy rescues Matthew from his orphan master and discovers his extraordinary singing voice. When the beauty of his music leads to a mysterious disappearance, she must try to save him again in a story about music's unsettling power.

Student Philip Skellow is found dead inside a locked specialist library at Cambridge's St. Agatha's College. College nurse Imogen Quy investigates, uncovering social tensions, a missing roommate, and academic rivalries that complicate the apparent circumstances of his death.

A shipwrecked atheist and a child raised by wolves arrive on a medieval island ruled by the Church. Cardinal-prince Severo questions whether knowledge of God is innate, setting in motion an experiment whose conclusions could determine both strangers' fates.

Cambridge nurse Imogen Quy's lodger Frances undertakes a biography of mathematician Gideon Summerfield, then discovers that previous biographers have died or disappeared. Their inquiries lead into Wales, where an event from Summerfield's past may explain the disturbing pattern.

Pepi's father must decorate an Egyptian prince's tomb and paints best from life. To help him, Pepi ventures out to summon dangerous animals by discovering their secret names, which appear as hieroglyphs for readers to decipher alongside the story.

Thomas shares his pasty with a small miner and receives a wish in return. When more miners appear, his generous impulse becomes troublesome, drawing him into a Cornish tale where food, kindness, and unexpected magical rewards create mounting complications.

When Connie visits, Robert refuses to share his toys, so she imagines playing with their real counterparts instead. Her make-believe adventures unfold beside his possessiveness, offering a different way for the two children to approach play and spending time together.

After her artist mother's death, Marion discovers a portrait that may reveal the identity of her absent father. Her search takes her to St. Ives, where memories of childhood and an old lifeboat disaster draw her into unresolved family history.

Walking beside the sea, Rosie listens as her grandmother compares the present with her own childhood. Memories of steam trains, fishing boats, and ice-cream sellers introduce a changed world, while their shared surroundings reveal connections between the two generations.

Begun by Sayers in 1936 and completed by Walsh, this novel sees Peter and Harriet settling into married life in London. Their happiness is tested when they become involved in the murder of a theatrical producer's wife against the backdrop of King Edward VIII's abdication crisis.

In 1945, Eliska shelters in a deserted Eastern European castle alongside partisans and other displaced people. The owner's return and the arrival of Communist forces unsettle their fragile arrangements, beginning a web of loyalties and losses that spans decades.

Set during World War II, this sequel finds Harriet Vane living in the country at Talboys. When a young woman is murdered during an air-raid drill, Harriet must work with the local police—and a visiting Peter—to catch a killer in a village full of secrets.

When wealthy businessman and potential college benefactor Sir Julius Farran falls from a cliff, Cambridge nurse Imogen Quy questions whether his death was accidental. Her inquiries draw St. Agatha's College into a complicated network of financial dealings and personal betrayals.

Research fellow John Talentire dies while climbing a Cambridge building, leaving questions about his supposedly accidental fall. During a student production of Hamlet, an actor makes a public accusation, drawing college nurse Imogen Quy into competing accounts of the death.

In 1951, the new Lord Attenbury asks Peter for help proving the ownership of a family heirloom. The investigation prompts Peter to recount his very first case from 1921, weaving a narrative that spans thirty years of Wimsey history.

Peter and Harriet return to Oxford when Peter is appointed 'Visitor' to settle a dispute at a fictional college. When fellows of the college start dying, the couple must unravel a mystery involving ancient manuscripts and academic rivalries.

Alice and her friends want to play the traditional playground game Jenny Jones, but the adults around them keep interfering. Rachel's grandmother sees things differently, offering another perspective on a game the children simply want to enjoy together.