THE BOOK
MY SOUL, A SHINING TREE BY JAMILA GAVIN
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 the walnut tree that shelters them all.
For ages 9+
JAMILA GAVIN
Jamila Gavin MBE was born in Mussoorie, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. With an Indian father and an English mother, she always felt she belonged to both countries, and they moved to England when she was 11. She studied music and worked for the BBC before having a family of her own and becoming a children’s writer, wanting to reflect the multicultural world in which she and her children now lived.
Photography © Marc Sethi
The judges said: My Soul, A Shining Tree is the exceptionally powerful story of three young lives unexpectedly entwined by war. Only a writer of genius could tell a story on this scale in fewer than 200 pages, with such vivid prose it has the quality of poetry.
2025 Children’s Fiction judges
