''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 1940 in Slough, England) is a British composer and arranger known for his creation of prominent television theme tunes, including the ''Grandstand'' theme for the BBC. Career Mansfield's other works include "The Young S ...

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 Seti or SETI may refer to: Astrobiology * SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. ** SETI Institute, an astronomical research organization *** SETIcon, a former convention organized by the SETI Institute ** Berkeley SETI Research Cent ...

-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 an organism by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. As a species' potential range may be ...

and the destruction of

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

, 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, is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. Its nickname, The Gherkin, is due to its resemblance to gherkin, the vegetable. It was completed ...

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 company is Norway's largest publishing company, publishing fiction and non-fiction works, including academic literature. It resulted from the merger of J.W. Cappelens Forlag, fou ...

in September 2009.

Prizes and awards

*New Horizons Book Award 2010 (longlisted)
* Concorde Book Award 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 Novels about alien abduction Novels about time travel 2008 children's books Quercus (publisher) books