My Soul, A Shining Tree

🌟WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S FICTION 2025 🌟

🌟One of the Telegraph’s 50 BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF ALL TIME🌟

The stunning novel from Jamila Gavin, bestselling and award-winning author of Coram Boy and The Wheel of Surya.

“Flawless” — Telegraph

Based on the true story of Indian WWI gunner and recipient of the Victoria Cross, Khudadad Khan. The story is told from four perspectives: Lotte, a Belgian farmgirl whose village is the flashpoint for a battle; Ernst, a German teenage cavalry soldier whose grandiose dreams of war lie in tatters; Khudadad Khan, the gunner fighting with the British Army; and a wild walnut tree.

When Lotte’s farm is destroyed in the fighting, she and her sister flee with their young neighbour Michael, to take refuge beneath the walnut tree on the ridge — a ridge currently being defended from the encroaching Germans by Indian gunner Khudadad Khan. There, they are joined by traumatised German soldier Ernst, whose horse lies lost in the trenches of the battle raging below. As their perspectives converge, their shared humanity emerges as a light in the darkness of war, safe beneath the branches of the walnut tree that shelters them all.

Reviews

🌟WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S FICTION 2025 🌟

“A sweeping war epic about love and courage … My Soul, a Shining Tree is a truly exceptional novel” — Charlotte Eyre, The Bookseller

“A superbly poignant and evocative historical novel from a much-loved author” — Imogen Russell-Williams, Guardian

“Jamila Gavin is one of our greatest writers” – S.F. Said

Praise for Never Forget You:

“If there are any prizes left for children’s books by the end of the year … then this thoughtful, engrossing new novel from Jamila Gavin should clean up … Gavin draws her characters with such care and detail that we root with all our might for each one as they use their free will to choose their own futures. Never Forget You is a novel to remember” – The Times

“We never lose our sense of engagement with the many characters and events, and quotations add to the rich debate about whether war is justified. An exceptionally well-told and compelling account of friendship, courage and love” – The Sunday Times

About the author

Jamila Gavin MBE was born in Mussoorie, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. With an Indian father and an English mother, she inherited two rich cultures which ran side by side throughout her life, and which always made her feel she belonged to both countries.

The family finally settled in England where Jamila completed her schooling, was a music student, worked for the BBC and became a mother of two children. It was then that she began writing children’s books, and felt a need to reflect the multi-cultural world in which she and her children now lived.