''Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London'' is the first novel in a series of young adult books written by

Keith Mansfield Keith Mansfield (born 1941 in London, England) is a British composer and arranger known for his creation of prominent television theme tunes, including the ''Grandstand'' theme for the BBC. Career Other works include "The Young Scene" (the ori ...

and published by Quercus. The book opens on the thirteenth birthday of the title character and is written entirely from Johnny Mackintosh's point of view.

Plot summary

Set in the early 21st century, the book opens with Johnny Mackintosh living in a children's home (Ben Halader House) located in the fictional Castle Dudbury New Town in the county of Essex, United Kingdom. He has written a SETI-style program for the children's home's computers and, at the beginning of the book, an alien signal is detected. As the book develops Johnny Mackintosh is abducted by aliens and travels to the centre of the Galaxy, before returning to Earth, but in the distant past. He witnesses the

extinction of the dinosaurs Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

and the destruction of Atlantis, before returning to the present day and discovering the truth about his parents. The ''Spirit of London'' of the title is the name of the spaceship acquired by Johnny Mackintosh during the course of the book. From the outside it appears identical to the skyscraper situated at 30 St Mary Axe in London, known as '

the Gherkin 30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. W ...

Publishing history

The English-language edition was published in hardcover in July 2008 and in paperback in January 2009. The Dutch edition, ''Johnny Mackintosh en de Supersnelle Augurk'' was published by Prometheus in June 2008 while the Norwegian edition, ''Johnny Mackintosh på galaktisk eventyr'' was published by

Cappelen Damm Cappelen Damm AS is a Norwegian publisher established in 2007. The present company resulted from the merger of J.W. Cappelens Forlag, founded in 1829, and N.W. Damm & Søn, founded in 1843. Cappelen Damm is jointly owned by the Bonnier Group ...

in September 2009.

Prizes and awards

New Horizons Book Award The New Horizons Book Award was instigated in 2010 by the School Library Service of Dorset County Council, United Kingdom. The award aims to encourage young people to explore some of the best fiction by exciting new authors. The award is open to ...

2010 (longlisted)
*

Concorde Book Award The Concorde Book Award is an annual prize for children's literature awarded by South Gloucestershire secondary school students. It may be compared with the United Kingdom's Children's Book Award, a national children's literature prize awarded thr ...

2011 (shortlisted)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London 2008 British novels British children's novels Children's science fiction novels British young adult novels Novels set in Essex Alien abduction in novels Novels about time travel 2008 children's books Quercus (publisher) books