The Hunt for David Berman
by Claire Mulligan

It is 1940 and Britain is at war with Germany. Robert has been evacuated from London to his grandparents’ farm in Scotland. While exploring the rugged coastline, he finds a boy living in the caves. The boy is called David and he is a Kindertransport child. David had to leave his mother and grandmother behind in Berlin, and has now run away from his cruel foster family nearby.

Meanwhile, at the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin, it is discovered that an Enigma codebook has been hidden in David’s suitcase. A Nazi secret agent in the UK is instructed to find David, retrieve the codebook and kill the boy …

“A thrilling wartime adventure with a big heart and a great friendship at its core.” Kelly McCaughrain

“Such is the quality of Claire Mulligan’s writing that had I been told this was a classic work of children’s literature I had somehow missed out on I would believe it. This is strong and assured storytelling of a rare kind. But for me it is the soaring quality of the writing. It is everything that children need and deserve from a work of fiction. Thank goodness this dear and deeply satisfying little novel has been discovered.” Louise Greig

“I’d almost forgotten what a good, gripping children’s adventure story was like. The Hunt for David Berman is a compulsive page turner. Set in 1940, it comes complete with seaside caves and spies, scary sessions at Gestapo Headquarters (watch out for The Dentist!) and above all a tale of courage and friendship between two boys from very different families.” Diana Hendry

“Robert and David are terrific characters, brave and loyal, and their friendship is at the heart of this well-written WW2 novel. Carefully researched, with lots of authentic detail, this friendship and adventure story will charm fans of Michael Morpurgo and Marita Conlon-McKenna.” Sarah Webb

“Sometimes our son’s pet jackdaw would sit on his head while Will or I read The Hunt for David Berman to him that first time. As it so happened, David in the book has a pet jackdaw too, named Blitzen. From the outset, we were sure that this middle-grade novel about David, a Kindertransport child, and his wartime adventure with his new friend, Robert, an evacuee from London, was something really special. Featuring murderous Nazis, enigma codebooks and wild sea adventures, The Hunt for David Berman is a thrilling page-turner set in the wilds of Scotland.” Rebecca O’Connor, publisher of The Caterpillar in Books for Keeps


Claire Mulligan lives in an old farmhouse set deep among the rolling drumlins of rural Ireland with her husband, their three boys, two dogs and a fox-dodging chicken called Percy. Claire’s children’s stories have been published in The Caterpillar magazine and she has written and recorded for RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany. In 2018 she won third place in the RTE Radio 1 Francis McManus Short Story Competition. This is her first novel.

Publication date 5 May 2022
272pp B-format paperback
Middle-grade fiction
£8.99 / €9.99
ISBN: 9780956979575