The day they took the children

On 1 September 1988, to celebrate the launch of Ben Wicks’ previous book, No Time To Wave Goodbye, hundreds of men and women travelled the length and breadth of the country to converge on London’s Marylebone Station. It was a nostalgic reunion. Nearly fifty years before, as children, following the outbreak of World War II they had lined up to be evacuated from bomb-threatened cities to the safety of the countryside. Their experiences as evacuees — sometimes traumatic, sometimes happy, but always unforgettable — had now been published so that others might read them.
nAnd they did. The book instantly became a bestseller. The author was inundated with thousands of letters, many from ex-evacuees, who on reading the book had laughed and wept as they relived something of their own past. They thanked him from the bottom of their hearts — and they begged for more.