A children's wartime adventure, stories of the supernatural and archaeology, and an essential reference book on prisons and criminal justice: this month has seen University of Winchester academics publish books on a variety of subjects. Find out more in this blog post.
Safe (Firefly Press) by Dr Vanessa Harbour, is the sequel to her debut children's novel Flight, which was published in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award and the Branford Boase Award.
Like Flight, Safe is based at the end of the Second World War and once again the young protagonists Kizzy and Jakob are off on a journey to save some horses. They are tricked and find themselves not only saving horses, but a group of 'lost children'. It is a treacherous journey back to safety: will they make it with all the horses and the children?
The book was inspired by the groups of displaced children who had lost both parents and were known as either 'lost children' or 'wolf children' because they moved in packs at the end of the Second World War.
Flight has been a huge success since it was published. The Book Council for Wales has picked it twice to go into all the primary schools in Wales, once to be included in a pack to help with mental health. It was published in the US in 2021 by Feiwell & Friends. This year it has been shortlisted for the Panda Award in China, where it is read by every International School, who vote for their favourite.
Vanessa is a disabled author and a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University. She arrived at Winchester 20 years ago this September to study for a degree in English Literature. She went on to study for a Masters in Writing for Children and a doctorate.
Dr Liam Leonard, Lecturer in the Department of Policing, Criminology and Forensics, is the author of Global Perspectives on People, Process, and Practice in Criminal Justice (IGI Global), an essential scholarly reference that focuses on incarceration and imprisonment and reflects on the differences and alternatives to these policies in various parts of the world.
Uniquely, some chapters give a voice to groups who are not always heard in debates about incarceration and justice, including those who have been incarcerated, family members of people who have been incarcerated, and those who work within the walls of the prison system.
The book investigates significant topics - including carceral trauma, prisoner rights, recidivism, and desistance - and will be essential reading for academics, researchers, policymakers, advocacy groups, students, government officials, criminologists, and other practitioners interested in criminal justice, penology, human rights, courts and law, victimology, and criminology.
Liam is an international academic who joined Winchester in 2022 and has held posts at Arden University, the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northern Arizona University and California State University, Los Angeles. He is an Associate Professor at West Virginia University, USA. The author/editor of over 20 books and numerous journal articles, Liam is Senior Editor of the Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice Book Series and Founding Editor of the CRIMSOC: Journal of Social Criminology.
Strange Relics (Handheld Press) is an anthology of classic short stories in which the supernatural and archaeology are combined, originally published from 1895 to 1954.
Co-editors Dr Katy Soar, Senior Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Winchester and Archaeological historian Amara Thornton of the University of London, have chosen a selection of twelve short stories encompassing horror, ghosts, hauntings, and possession, all from archaeological excavation. From a Neolithic rite to Egyptian religion to Roman remains to medieval masonry to some uncanny ceramic tiles in a perfectly ordinary American sun lounge, the relics in these stories are certainly strange.
The book has been garnering good reviews from a variety of sources, including Current Archaeology.
A private launch at Senate House, University of London, was followed by an online talk. A recording is available on YouTube below.
Watch a video of Katy and Amara speaking about how they found the stories and why they wanted to make an anthology of supernatural stories about archaeology above.
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