The Squad Series

The Squad
The Squad

International espionage and football action combine when these teenage spies are sent to the world’s toughest trouble spots, going undercover with the England youth team.

The world’s in danger and only The Squad can save us.

Read more about the 2 books in this series here:

Squad 1 : Black Op

Squad 2 : White Fear

Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot” here.

Read about The Squad team here.

Learn more about reading and writing The Squad here.

Read first chapters by clicking on the covers below:

Black Op cover  White Fear cover

 

Read my extra story Black and White Op written to celebrate the launch of The Squad series for Newcastle Libraries here.

Writing the Squad

White Fear was inspired by reports I read in newspapers about how

map
Source:International Boundaries Research Unit, Durham University
www.durham.ac.uk/ibru/resources/arctic

quickly the Arctic ice is melting – and the numerous predicted catastrophes :

  •     the seas will rise
  •     rare wildlife will die out
  •     communities that live in the Arctic will lose their way of life
  •     without the ice in place, the seabed is accessible and some countries will begin to drill for oil, gas and other valuable resources – AND that they will start to jostle for who owns which part of the sea bed.

White Fear draws mostly on the last two threats.

It is set at a fictional conference of the Arctic Powers (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and USA) in Tromso, Norway. These countries are trying, in a last chance to avoid war, to decide who owns which part of the seabed. But evil forces are at large. Forces that profit from war and oil exploitation. Forces that don’t want peace.

The only way to avert war is for The Squad – five British child spies – squad logoto infiltrate the conference and stop the evil-doers. It involves mountain-top anxiety, abseiling, chases on ocean liners and even a submarine.

It also involves an ecological protest group made up of Inuit people – called White Fear – that is trying to make the Arctic Powers see sense and help reverse the ice melt.

Sadly, recent events have re-highlighted the problems the Arctic faces.

The Arctic ice is now at its smallest and thinnest since records arcticbegan. The melt is accelerating year on year, meaning that some Arctic Powers are already exploring, looking for oil and gas and minerals. Not so long ago the Russians placed a Russian flag on the seabed, appearing to claim it for themselves.

Only very recently Greenpeace has been trying to prevent Russian drilling ships from searching for oil beneath that newly-exposed seabed, facing a very aggressive response from the Russians.

When I researched White Fear, I was on board a Norwegian ship, tom on boardlooking at the waters and land that the Arctic Powers are fighting over.

I hope this book does something to raise awareness in children about something that is vital to the future of our planet.

For a daily update on the Arctic ice visit http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

For news from Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign visit www.greenpeace.org.uk/.

I blogged about my research trips here:

Poland
On-deck
Norway

You can check out how I used my research to write Black Op and White Fear on my blog:

Characters
Writing about Norway

Squad AwardsChris Bradford top 5 books

2013 The Squad : Black Op wins the Solihull Children’s Book Award

2013 The Squad : Black Op shortlisted for the Leicester Libraries Our Best Book Award

2013 The Squad : White Fear listed in Chris Bradford’s “Top 5 books Every Child Should Read Before They’re 12″

 

 

 

 

 

Buy the books

The SquadSigned and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot” here.

The Squad 1 : Black Op Amazon
The Squad 2 : White Fear Amazon

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