No Time to Wave Goodbye

By this time I wanted my Mummy and Daddy and to be back in that little terraced house all together again. Later, in a strange cold bed at the end of that long weary day, I hid under the bedclothes and cried. No Time to Wave Goodbye follows the untold tales of some of the 3.5 million evacuees whose lives were suddenly and unforgettably shaken by the upheaval of war. Wicks weaves together the adult memories of children who went to school as normal only to end their day in the homes of complete strangers, within the alien landscape of the English countryside. Unknown to many of them it would now be years before they would once again be reunited with their loved ones. No Time to Wave Goodbye paints a startling and often heartbreaking picture of the evacuees' war.

YA-- As early as 1924, a government committee decided that if England were ever at war again, the children would be evacuated from London to small villages in the countryside. This is the story of those evacuated children, often told in their words. In one four-day period alone, over 16,000 children were removed from London; ultimately a quarter of London's population was removed. There are repeated reminiscences of heartbroken parents seeing their children off on trains and having no idea of their destinations. In many instances the children arrived in villages unprepared for lodging them. Many times they endured humiliation and cruelty--sometimes even sexual abuse. But for many others it was an opportunity to escape London's poverty and experience indoor plumbing, use knives and forks, ride in a car or train, and see animals. Actor Michael Caine shares his own experiences as an evacuee in the foreword. Wicks provides his own special insight since he, too, was one of these children. He makes it clear that evacuated children are still trying to cope with the impact of this episode on their lives. --Barbara Weathers, Duchesne Academy, Houston
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.