Jacqueline King
Jacqueline King is a Channel Islander living in Somerset, who has written about everything and everyone ever since she could first grasp a pencil.
She cut her teaching teeth alongside twice recipient of the Carnegie Medal, Robert Westall, in Cheshire and has spent half a lifetime teaching and telling stories to primary pupils in remote village schools across the UK.
These days, she helps in Forest Schools, sculpts in bronze and stone and continues to be bewitched by islands and the sea. Although she has written articles and comic verse for children, A Cake for the Gestapo is her first published novel for MG and is a work of fiction skillfully woven from true survivor accounts of the Nazi occupation of Jersey during WW2, a story that remarkably has never been covered in children's literature. A Cake for the Gestapo was published in Spring 2020.
She cut her teaching teeth alongside twice recipient of the Carnegie Medal, Robert Westall, in Cheshire and has spent half a lifetime teaching and telling stories to primary pupils in remote village schools across the UK.
These days, she helps in Forest Schools, sculpts in bronze and stone and continues to be bewitched by islands and the sea. Although she has written articles and comic verse for children, A Cake for the Gestapo is her first published novel for MG and is a work of fiction skillfully woven from true survivor accounts of the Nazi occupation of Jersey during WW2, a story that remarkably has never been covered in children's literature. A Cake for the Gestapo was published in Spring 2020.
Selected Praise for A Cake for Gestapo:
“An unusual and fascinating setting, vivid characters and an involving plot, all woven together with a fine, sensuous and rhythmic prose.”
Anthony McGowan
"Jacqueline King has written a Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for younger readers. Powerful and poignant, she goes right to the heart of a tight knit community under enemy occupation and tells a story full of friendship, compassion and defiant courage in the face of increasing danger and oppression."
Celia Rees
“A beautiful, heart-warming story about a rough and ready gang of children and their pig in German occupied Jersey. Wonderful, convincing characters leap across sandy beaches and into unexpected adventures.”
Emma Craigie
"A story that is often overlooked but incredibly important to history with characters to fall in love with, this might just be a classic in the making. The group steal your heart and make you root for them, I almost forgot what I was reading was based on reality. Full of fun and mischief despite everything."
Chloe Metzger
"If The Famous Five lived in Wartime Jersey and had a penchant for revenge, Cake For the Gestapo would be the ultimate adventure story. A fun, touching and fascinating window into a mostly forgotten part of occupied Britain."
Sarah Churchill
"A mesmerising account of the channel island occupation told from the perspective of a plucky gang of kids who waged their own secret war against the Germans, utterly and completely unmissable"
ReaditDaddy
"So relatable - there is a real flavour of the era. I loved the bravery and humour."
Claire Being A Mummy
"A Cake For The Gestapo is beautifully written, exciting and dangerous, and quite heartbreaking. You find yourself immersed in the children's world of mixed up innocence and maturity, and you hold your breath when those worlds collide, knowing that this is a real war, and bad things really are going to happen."
The Brick Castle
“This is an exciting project, which could generate considerable interest in all the Channel Islands. My colleague, the Minister of Education, is keen to place greater emphasis in the Jersey Curriculum on knowledge of local history and culture, and of course the German Occupation is a key part of recent local history. It seems to me likely that the Department of Education would be very interested in the book. The teaching of the history of the Occupation and related holocaust issues has added momentum given the relatively recent reconciliation with Germany and the twinning of St Helier and Bad Wurzach, to which town some 2000 Jersey residents were deported in 1942 on the direct instructions of Hitler. I am very supportive of this project.”
Sir Philip Bailhache, former Bailiff of Jersey
“Your writing is excellent and the subject matter authentic”
Gilly Carr, Fellow and Director of Studies, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge
Historian of the Channel Islands' Occupation.
“An unusual and fascinating setting, vivid characters and an involving plot, all woven together with a fine, sensuous and rhythmic prose.”
Anthony McGowan
"Jacqueline King has written a Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for younger readers. Powerful and poignant, she goes right to the heart of a tight knit community under enemy occupation and tells a story full of friendship, compassion and defiant courage in the face of increasing danger and oppression."
Celia Rees
“A beautiful, heart-warming story about a rough and ready gang of children and their pig in German occupied Jersey. Wonderful, convincing characters leap across sandy beaches and into unexpected adventures.”
Emma Craigie
"A story that is often overlooked but incredibly important to history with characters to fall in love with, this might just be a classic in the making. The group steal your heart and make you root for them, I almost forgot what I was reading was based on reality. Full of fun and mischief despite everything."
Chloe Metzger
"If The Famous Five lived in Wartime Jersey and had a penchant for revenge, Cake For the Gestapo would be the ultimate adventure story. A fun, touching and fascinating window into a mostly forgotten part of occupied Britain."
Sarah Churchill
"A mesmerising account of the channel island occupation told from the perspective of a plucky gang of kids who waged their own secret war against the Germans, utterly and completely unmissable"
ReaditDaddy
"So relatable - there is a real flavour of the era. I loved the bravery and humour."
Claire Being A Mummy
"A Cake For The Gestapo is beautifully written, exciting and dangerous, and quite heartbreaking. You find yourself immersed in the children's world of mixed up innocence and maturity, and you hold your breath when those worlds collide, knowing that this is a real war, and bad things really are going to happen."
The Brick Castle
“This is an exciting project, which could generate considerable interest in all the Channel Islands. My colleague, the Minister of Education, is keen to place greater emphasis in the Jersey Curriculum on knowledge of local history and culture, and of course the German Occupation is a key part of recent local history. It seems to me likely that the Department of Education would be very interested in the book. The teaching of the history of the Occupation and related holocaust issues has added momentum given the relatively recent reconciliation with Germany and the twinning of St Helier and Bad Wurzach, to which town some 2000 Jersey residents were deported in 1942 on the direct instructions of Hitler. I am very supportive of this project.”
Sir Philip Bailhache, former Bailiff of Jersey
“Your writing is excellent and the subject matter authentic”
Gilly Carr, Fellow and Director of Studies, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge
Historian of the Channel Islands' Occupation.
