Thursday 12 June 2025 is Empathy Day!

I am thrilled that Angel of Grasmere is part of this year’s @EmpathyLabUK collection.

Empathy Lab is a great idea.

I’m pretty sure reading books has given me a bit more empathy than I had before. https://empathylab.uk/RFE

Register for the Empathy Day resources here 

Empathy Day and Empathy Festival

Watch my 2025 film for Empathy lab here

Previous year’s Empathy Days …

My free stories for Refugee Week has been used to help explore empathy in some schools …

“Year 9 are spending some of their English lessons investigating the plight of refugees through Tom Palmer‘s collaboration with the National Literacy Trust: 5 short stories themed on “Boat People”. An opportunity to explore cultures, compassion and empathy. ” @UnsworthAcademy

The 80th anniversaries of
VE Day Thursday 8 May 2025
VJ Day Friday 15 August 2025
Join in the many ways to mark the occasion both nationally and locally more here ve-vjday80.gov.uk/

Meet me Summer 2025

Saturday 16 August 2025
10-3pm Bankfield Museum Halifax  WW2 VJ Day event with Thoughtful Spot

You can mark them at home and in the classroom using my books:

After the War – VE Day
War Dog – VJ Day

And I have created these new VE & VJ Day resources that  families, schools and libraries can use.

My book – After the War – features scenes set on VE Day, 8^th May 1945.  In England where communities celebrate the defeat of the Nazis and in Czechoslovakia where Jewish children are liberated from camps and ghettos by the Russians.

War Dog is my first non-fiction picture book. The true story of one dog’s incredible bravery in WWII Judy is a dog who lives on a ship called HMS Grasshopper. Set in the Second World War in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. After the fall of Singapore Judy and her crew become prisoners of war.

V J Day Blog #1

It is now 80 years on since their arrival of 300 child holocaust survivors in Lake District.  And you can read my blog on the Windermere Children and the writing of After the War for Barrington Stoke here. 

VJ Day Blog #2 

I’m pleased to have done a blog for BBC Bitesize. On five books about conflict for children that I think are outstanding. Including Rosemary Sutcliff, @balirai and others.

VE Day Resources

And here is my special reading of a VE Day scene and some thoughts on what VE Day means today … https://youtu.be/e_nuEqNIuII

How to develop an idea for a VE Day story using a WW2 artefact https://youtu.be/j8zpuSC3b0k

VE Day paper dolls. Decorate paper dolls of the children of VE Day. Then put it up as bunting to help mark the 80^th anniversary of their liberation here. 

VE Day Reading Quiz

Read the section of the book where the children talk about their very different experiences of VE Day, then answer some questions here. 

With an extra “Word of the Day – Victory” activity.

VE Day Black Out poetry. Create your own black out poetry using a VE Day scene from After the War here

You can find all the resources above and read more about After the War and the research I did to find out about what happened to children in England and on the continent on and after VE Day by visiting www.tompalmer.co.uk/after-the-war.

War Dog – VJ Day

War Dog is my first non-fiction picture book.

The true story of one dog’s incredible bravery in WWII Judy is a dog who lives on a ship called HMS Grasshopper. Set in the Second World War in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. After the fall of Singapore Judy and her crew become prisoners of war.

Judy Colouring
This is Judy.  Colour her brown patches and spots and mark the 80^th Anniversary of VJ Day in 2025 with a special border or background.

Download here

Dickin Medal Activity
Learn about Judy’s Dickin medal and follow the instructions to colour it in and then design your own medal for an animal or person of your choice.

Download here

Follow Judy’s Journey from China to East Africa

More here

And here’s a timeline of my other historical fiction set during the Second World War and the key historical events featured.

PDF here 

Buy Books

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

With an extra special Christmas or birthday card from me on request!

Overseas :
Australia: Boomerang
Canada: Amazon Canada
New Zealand: Wheelers
USA :  Indigo books

Visit my bookshop or support your local bookshop HIVE

Schools bumper book pack
offer

33 books for £200

Saving £73

Over 25% discount

Free Delivery

Please email rosie@rosemaryhillbooks.co.uk

Schools class set offer

15 copies 20%+ discount
30 copies 25%+ discount
100 copies 30% + discount

FREE DELIVERY & SIGNED BOOKPLATES

Please email rosie@rosemaryhillbooks.co.uk for a quote

Email me here for more information or use my contact form here to ask me a question.

Thank you.

PRIVACY & COOKIES POLICY                            TERMS & CONDITIONS

What’s on offer World Book Day and Spring 2025

• Meet Me!
• My Rocky Takes the Lead £1 World Book Day book
• My World Book Day writing journey films – how I write
• World Book Day Dress up ideas and resources
• 27 March 2025 – NEW Soccer Diaries Book 3: Rocky Goes for Goal
• Signed Books for Easter
• Author Visit options and availability
• How to subscribe to my newsletter by email 
• 11 September 2025 – War Dog – a Historical non-fiction picture book Out 
• September 2025 – a  new Sporting Fiction trilogy Book 1  COMING SOON
• LATEST Angel of Grasmere resources FREE posters and resources
• All year round FREE Football fiction resources – posters and certificates

Meet Me!

Saturday 8 March 2025 Oxford Story Museum
Saturday 15 March 2025  Words by the Water Festival, Keswick
Saturday 29 March 2025 Thoughtful Spot, Halifax
Sunday 11 May 2025 Imperial War Museum North

More details here

6 March 2025 – World Book Day – Exciting news!

I have written a new Rocky story which has been selected as one of the books you can choose with your World Book Day 2025 vouchers.

In Rocky Takes the Lead – will Rocky be able to take the lead and show both her British and her American friends that they’re all united by football?

Available from February 2025 for World Book Day – 6 March 2025
£1 / E1.50 or your WBD voucher

• Take a peek inside now!
• Watch me introduce the book now!

More about Rocky here

More about World Book Day 2025 here

My World Book Day Writing Journey

I’ve been making a video diary to share my writing journey from idea to the finished book for you to follow here

1. Getting a book deal
2. Reading other books
3. Researching
4. Planning
5. Writing my first draft
6. Finishing the first draft
7. Editing
8. Responding to feedback
9. The news is out

Watch now here …

6 March 2025 – World Book Day

Dress up ideas for all my books here https://tompalmer.co.uk/world-book-day/

And lots more free resources here

• introductory powepoint
• posters
• colouring
• classroom reads
• films
• reading certificates

More here

27 March 2025 – NEW Soccer Diaries
Book 3: Rocky Goes for Goal

Can Rocky Race lead her team to victory?

Now that Rocky has her grades under control, she can focus on the most important thing: she is going to the California Soccer Championships! With only weeks to go until the big match, Rocky is starting to… get nervous? But she never gets scared before a match! So why is she having nightmares, and dreading training after school? Everyone is counting on her, and she knows that winning the championship gives her a better chance of going pro. With so much pressure, will Rocky be able to step up and take the winning shot?

Book 3 in The Soccer Diaries series starring Rocky Race, a British footballer looking to make it big.

More here

Signed Books for Easter 

Books can be simply signed by me or using their website you can specify a message like “To Nadiya, Happy Easter” for me to add.

2025 Author visits options and availability 

I am available for author visits both in person, pre-records and virtual from June 2025 linking to …

• a focus on Historical Fiction
• my Football Reading Game
• my Rugby Reading Game
• talks about Fair Trade
• writing workshops
• shorter  sessions for pupils with SEND
• assemblies
• presentations
• workshops
• virtual visits
• writing-history-with-the-imperial-war-museum

• More about my author visits here

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SPOTLIGHT ON MY LATEST publication
“Angel of Grasmere:from Dunkirk to the Fells”
By Tom Palmer Published NOW by Barrington Stoke.

July 1940 – Tarn struggles to come to terms with the loss of her beloved brother in the chaos of the British retreat at Dunkirk and she and her friends scour the hills around their Westmorland home, watching for any signs of the long-dreaded Nazi invasion.

But as the war drags on, with little good news from the front, the locals become aware of someone carrying out anonymous acts of kindness. With no one claiming credit, the village come to think of this unidentified stranger as a kind of guardian angel, but when his identity is finally revealed can Tarn come to terms with the truth…?

Links – Effect of war on countryside, Evacuees,Bombing of cities –  Manchester,Bombing of Ports- Barrow in Furness, evacuation of Allied forces from the French port of Dunkirk in 1940, Battle of Britain,Rivers.

Free resources HERE … tompalmer.co.uk/angel-of-grasmere/

• • Trailer https://youtu.be/BAwGDDuNRHk
  • Tom’s writer’s scrapbook
  • Tom’s writer’s diary
  • Interview with Tom
  • A cover prediction set of worksheets
  • Angel paper dolls activity
  • Settings map worksheet
  • Playscript

“In the darkest of days, that’s when the miracles begin”

FREE Poster packs available on request from here. 

Download high-res posters by clicking on the images below:

Out 11 September 2025

I will have a new children’s historical non-fiction picture book out in September.  War Dog is a very special illustrated true story about Judy hero of the Second World War.

• More here tompalmer.co.uk/war-dog/ 
• Sign up for previews here tompalmer.co.uk/new-writing/
• Pre-order now Amazon
• Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot”  here.

COMING SOON – a Sporting Fiction trilogy

Book 1 out September 2025

• Sign up for previews here tompalmer.co.uk/new-writing/
• Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot”  here.

All year round FREE Football fiction resources – posters and certificates

I have FREE certificates I can sign for readers of all my books.

• Football Academy
• Foul Play
• Roy and Rocky of the Rovers
• My History Books

Tell me here if your pupils have read a whole series and you can receive a special signed certificate to present to them.

If you would like a football poster pack please visit my poster order page here 

More football resources here

Buy Books

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

With an extra special Christmas or birthday card from me on request!

Overseas :
Australia: Boomerang
Canada: Amazon Canada
New Zealand: Wheelers
USA :  Indigo books

Visit my bookshop or support your local bookshop HIVE

Schools bumper 33 book pack offer here

33 books
£194 saving £63 – over 25% discount
FREE DELIVERY & SIGNED BOOKPLATES

Please email rosie@rosemaryhillbooks.co.uk

Schools class set offer here.

15 copies 20%+ discount
30 copies 25%+ discount
100 copies 30% + discount

FREE DELIVERY & SIGNED BOOKPLATES

Please email rosie@rosemaryhillbooks.co.uk for a quote

Email me here for more information or use my contact form here to ask me a question.

Thank you.

PRIVACY & COOKIES POLICY                            TERMS & CONDITIONS

Tuesday 27 January 2026 is Holocaust Memorial Day.

I am working again with the National Literacy Trust with classroom resources focused on oracy activities, empathy and informed discussion will support your KS2 or  KS3 class to explore, reflect and mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

10:00 – 10:45am 27 January 2026 – Holocaust Memorial Day live assembly with the National Literacy Trust.  Join me and special guest, Ruth Barnett to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The free event will focus on Ruth’s experience of travelling to England as part of the Kindertransport.    FREE Book now here.

Five Words
Anschluss, Kristallnacht, Kindertransport, Refugee, Alien
I have written a new 5 part story for schools to read aloud, based on “My Darling Diary”, the real Kindertransport and wartime journal of a girl called Inga from her life first in Vienna, Austria 1937-39 and then in Falmouth, Cornwall 1939-1944. FREE Available now here.

Inga extra source materials :

Primary sources – a flip book of Inga’s family tree, photos & records

Listen to an interview with Inga here 

See Inga’s doll held by the Imperial War Museum here and her toy umbrella here

Read Cornwall Live newspaper article here

I am extremely grateful to Inga and her immediate and wider family for the support they have given us with this project and to UCL Centre for Holocaust Education for their expertise.

The FREE accompanying resources are suitable for every school to use around Holocaust Memorial Day.  For updates and reminders, please fill in the form below.  (Materials from previous years are still available free to use all year round, please scroll down.)

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The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2026, ‘Bridging Generations’, is a call-to-action. A reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn’t end with the survivors – it lives on through their children, their grandchildren and through all of us. This theme encourages us all to engage actively with the past – to listen, to learn and to carry those lessons forward. By doing so, we build a bridge between memory and action, between history and hope for the future.

Holocaust Memorial Day in 2025

“We Will Tell Your Stories” marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.   FREE resources suitable for every school to use around Holocaust Memorial Day.

These resources are designed to inspire young people to create non-fiction historical writing based on true and powerful stories from the Holocaust and life after liberation.

“a great deal of thought, care, and effort has gone into creating something truly meaningful, playing a vital role in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive and ensuring its lessons are passed on to future generations.” Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

They draw inspiration from the testimony of five women and men including Jewish, Roma and Sinti and LGBT+ people – victims and survivors of the Nazis between 1939 and 1945.

My “We Will Tell Your Stories” writing scrapbook …

My film on writing a story about a Holocaust survivor …

With huge thanks to Paul Hill@manshedfilms

This year’s resources include …

• a new high-quality film recorded at locations, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, intended to guide children through the process of writing a story about a Holocaust survivor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQdmSL8ePMw
• new resources created by the National Literacy Trust guiding the children through that writing process: https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/holocaust-memorial-day/
• my “We Will Tell Your Stories” writing scrapbook that can be used as an inspiration or raw material.  see above
• a live virtual event with genocide survivors from the National Literacy Trust and Holocaust Memorial Day Trust on Monday 27 January . Catch up here https://youtu.be/R0J7-tzFSUw
• a new Auschwitz Survivor Story by me: https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/holocaust-memorial-day/
• 50% off class sets of After the War with UCL form here
• a certificate to present to students for their work here

My 2025 resources are available with the support of partners including:

• the Lake District Holocaust Project
• UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
• the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
• the National Literacy Trust

And for the very first time I am working with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum who supported my filming and research.

Get 50% off class sets of 30 copies of After the War from Auschwitz to Ambleside” for  £119.85 (RRP £239.70) plus P&P £4.95 with UCL using this form here

Available all year round are the first chapters of Tom’s award-winning children’s historical fiction, “After the War – from Auschwitz to Ambleside” here https://tompalmer.co.uk/after-the-war/.

And you might also be interested in Tom’s blog for The Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre about his children’s historical fiction, “After the War – from Auschwitz to Ambleside” https://holocaustlearning.org.uk/latest/after-the-war-writing-about-the-holocaust/

Tom’s resources from previous Holocaust Memorial Days are still accessible below including …

• a five part story about the late Michael Novice – a man who survived Auschwitz and went on to work for @NASA and design the camera that showed us man walking on the moon. In memory of an extraordinary man.
• a five part story of a sister and brother reunion after the end of the war.  Of Mala Tribich MBE & the Late Sir Ben Helfgott, reunited after surviving the Nazi concentration camps.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2024

Our 2024 resources were available with partners including UCL Centre for Holocaust Education and the National Literacy Trust:

• a webinar with the Historical Association
• a Free 5 part story
• an online Q&A event with Mala Tribich

Wednesday 17 January 2024 CPD Webinar 4-5pm
As author of “After the War – from Auschwitz to Ambleside”, I took part in a webinar with the Historical Association and the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education – “Making the most out of Holocaust Memorial Day: challenges and opportunities”.

Monday 22 -26 January 2024 FREE 5 part story to read aloud
This year’s story to be read in the week prior to Holocaust Memorial Day is the true tale of a sister and brother reunion after the end of the war.  Of Mala Tribich MBE & the Late Sir Ben Helfgott, reunited after surviving the Nazi concentration camps. (Mala was in Sweden and Ben in London.)  The Late Sir Ben Helfgott was one of the inspirations for Tom’s acclaimed “After the War from Auschwitz to Ambleside” about the three hundred child concentration camp survivors who came to the Lake District nearly 75 years ago (known as the Windermere Boys) is available with lots of FREE resources to support it.  (More here www.tompalmer.co.uk/after-the-war/)  

Download the story here or watch Tom reading the story here.

Friday 26 January 2024 – 09:30 to 10:15 online Q&A even