Finding Friendship in Unlikely Places

Nicholas Hodgson Author Interview

Partners in Time follows two boys from London who use a secret underground tunnel to travel through time and have to fix the broken timeline before all of history is altered. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I’ve always loved time travel stories and time travel movies. And the idea of travelling back into the past and seeing some amazing historical events (and people from history!) unfold right before your eyes has been an idea that has thrilled me since I was a kid. So when I decided to write a middle-grade novel it was a no-brainer that it would feature two kids time travelling through history.

Harry and Jett become unlikely friends, and their bond deepens as they travel through time to repair the historical timeline. What was your inspiration for the characters and their relationship?

I’m not sure there is one inspiration for their relationship. Both those characters are very close to my heart and once I started to write them into scenes together, the friendship between them just evolved. Maybe having a best friend you could travel in time with would have been my dream when I was their age? I’m not sure…

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

To me the book is really about two boys, each with hardship in their lives (especially Harry) finding each other and becoming friends. The plot is what they are doing while becoming friends, but the story itself is about discovering friendship in unlikely (impossible) places. And the courage that having a true friend by your side gives you.

When will book two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?

The post-credits scene at the end of Partners in Time gives a big hint as to where Book 2 will go. Suffice to say – time travel is never quite straight forward and it’s really important to close doors properly. The only other clue I can give is that the next book explores a part of history completely different from in Partners in Time. With luck I’ll have book 2 ready to launch mid way through 2024.

Author Links: Facebook | Website

Brace yourself for the adventure of two lifetimes!

Jett was just happy to make a new friend.

He honestly didn’t mind that Harry claimed to have time travelled via a secret underground tunnel from wartime London all the way to twenty-first century New Zealand.
Nothing wrong with a kid having a great imagination.

Except Harry wasn’t lying or making it up.
There really was a tunnel.
An impossible link between the past and the future.
But tampering with time travel, even by accident, has unintended consequences.

Now Harry and Jett have to race against time to mend what was broken or nothing in the past, the present or the future will ever be the same.

An unlikely adventure that will make… or break… history.

Partners in Time is a story of fixing history and making friends, a most unexpected (and sometimes smelly!) time travel tale.

With cheese toasties.

“If I wasn’t in this book, I’d definitely want to read it.” – Harry, aged 11. England
“Such a good story, I hope they make a movie, and I get to play me!” – Jett, aged 11, New Zealand

Posted on November 16, 2023, in Interviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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