Too Many Goodbyes - Softcover

Geoff Sleeman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1804671002 ISBN 13: 9781804671009

Publisher: BookVAULT Publishing, 2023

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The story told in ‘Too Many Goodbyes’ is that of an eight year old schoolboy, called Geoffrey Sleeman, from south London, who in 1939 was evacuated to the safety of the West Sussex countryside because of the impending outbreak of World War II. He, along with an elder brother and sister, were evacuated with the brother’s school just before the outbreak of the war. This was allowed so as not to split families up. It tells not only of his confusion and bewilderment but that of every child involved in the mass movement of children. Very few if any understood exactly what was happening or why. Following the confusion of the tearful goodbyes and the train journey the three siblings plus two other boys were eventually billeted with a very well-to-do household. The house owners were a Mr and Mrs Corbett-Ashby who had a live-in staff comprising a cook, housemaid, a general handyman, and a lady who did mending, sewing, repairs and helping in the kitchen. There was a very large garden and grounds for crop growing and pasture. For this there was a full time gardener who lived in his shack within the grounds. It was a completely different lifestyle from their modest flat in Battersea, south London, where their parents, two older sisters and a much younger brother remained, trying to carry on life as normally as possible. The responsibility of looking after these five evacuee children fell upon the cook and housemaid, who were sisters. It was a strange, new situation and this story tells of how everybody had to quickly adjust and try to cope with it as best as they could. There was not enough room in the village school for the London evacuees so the headmaster and teachers had to set about finding accommodation where classescould be held, and also some equipment to start up their own separate school. This was not easy and took some weeks to achieve – and even then there was very little equipment to be seen. The village to which they were sent was not exac

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