Bringing the Cobb Street Commandos to Life – An Interview with Award-Winning Children’s Author Tony Bradman
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A new children’s book from renowned author Tony Bradman is always something to be excited about, which is why we positively squeaked with delight upon hearing the news that Tony was debuting a brand-new series set in World War 2: Tales of the Cobb Street Commandos. During his career, Tony has written more books for children than we can count, which, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is a stonking number indeed! Well, definitely over fifty, but after that point the whole number thing gets a little hazy for the Imagining History team. Many of those books have become essential reads for primary school teachers. Viking Boy, Queen of Darkness and Winter of the Wolves are just a few notable examples of the many Tony Bradman books that have thrilled children in classrooms across the country.
Tales of the Cobb Street Commandos is a new venture for Tony: a historical series following the eponymous children’s gang as they do whatever they can to help keep the East End of London safe. Jimmy and his pals embark on action-packed adventures around the city as they raise money for Spitfire planes, train alongside soldiers, and go on daring missions to meet the Prime Minister — Winston Churchill himself! We were treated to a preview copy and, suffice to say, it’s awesome and will surely be a smash hit with children everywhere.
We were delighted to have the chance to sit down with Tony the other week. As you might expect, he’s a joy to talk to: warm, thoughtful and wonderfully knowledgeable about history. In fact, once we got going, the hour flew by. Rather than reproduce the full conversation — which, according to the transcript, included at least twelve minutes of your interviewer saying “erm”, “yeah” and “OK” — we’ve gathered together the highlights, beginning with the question we were most keen to ask: where did the idea for Cobb Street Commandos first come from?
“Yes, very clearly,” Tony says. “I wanted to write a World War 2 series for children that felt fast-moving and funny but still had real history running through it. I liked the idea of looking at the war from a child's point of view rather than beginning with the big set-piece events. Once I had Jimmy and his friends in mind, and this idea of them refusing to sit on the sidelines while the adults got on with the war, the whole thing started to come alive.”
“What appealed to me was that children would see the period from street level. They're not looking at history from above; they're living in it. They're seeing the damage, hearing the rumours, making plans, getting things wrong, trying to be useful. That seemed a really lively way into the subject.”
It’s such an appealing way into the period, and it’s exactly what gives the book its spark. Tales of the Cobb Street Commandos crackles with energy, but it also never loses sight of the real pressures of wartime life. We were keen to know how Tony managed that balance between adventure, humour and danger.
“That was always important to me. The books have to work as stories first. They need pace, jokes, cliffhangers and that sense that something is always about to happen. But at the same time, you can't pretend the background isn't serious. These children are growing up with bomb damage, fear, food shortages and all the strange pressures of wartime life. So, the trick was never to make light of the war itself, but to let the children bring wit, imagination and bravery into that world.”
“I also wanted the books to feel welcoming for younger readers. If this is a child's first encounter with World War 2, you want them to feel drawn in rather than lectured. So, the history has to be there, but it needs to live inside the action.”
That idea of history living inside the action feels especially important for younger readers. World War 2 is such a huge topic, and one of the pleasures of the book is the way it makes that history feel immediate and tangible. So, we asked Tony which parts of wartime life he most wanted to bring into the adventure.
“I wanted the setting to feel absolutely grounded in wartime London,” Tony tells us. “Not just in a general sense, but in the everyday details of how the war would have been felt by children in the East End. So that means streets, schools, family life, rumours, drills, shortages, all of that. The war isn't happening somewhere else to these characters. It's pressing in on them all the time.”
“And then there are the more specific themes: the Blitz, rationing, the Home Guard, fundraising for Spitfires, Churchill as this huge figure in the national imagination. Those are all things children can latch on to, but they also open the door to wider questions about what wartime Britain was really like.”
That really feels like the key to the book’s appeal. For teachers, there are so many natural routes outwards from the story into wider discussion: rationing, the Blitz, the Home Guard, propaganda, community spirit and everyday life on the home front. For parents, too, it’s the sort of story that can open up conversations at home without ever feeling heavy-handed. Above all, though, children are drawn in by the gang itself.
So we asked Tony what it is about the Cobb Street Commandos that feels so instantly recognisable to modern readers.
“It’s because children immediately understand a gang,” Tony says. “They understand friendship, rivalries, secret plans, headquarters, all those things. So, before you've even introduced the history, you've already given them something they can step into imaginatively. Then, once they're inside that world, they start encountering the history almost by instinct.”
“The other thing is that a group of children trying to prove they can be useful is just a strong story. They make plans, they improvise, they overreach, they surprise themselves. All of that gives you drama, but it also lets you show how war changes ordinary childhood.”
Our thanks to Tony for such a generous and enjoyable conversation!
Tales of the Cobb Street Commandos is published on 18 June 2026.
You can pre-order it from Faber or through your local bookshop.
