Goodbye East End
Subtitle: an evacuee's story
By: David Merron
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 364
ISBN-13: 9780552171472; 9781473510838
Subjects: Jewish families; World War, 1939-1945; Evacuation of civilians; Social conditions; History; Childhood and youth; Children
Description: "As Hitler's bombs rained down hell during World War 2, eight-year-old David Merron was taken from the heart of his close-knit Jewish community in London's East End and evacuated to the safety of the English countryside. Transplanted into an alien world, adrift from his nurturing family and at the mercy of sometimes cold-hearted strangers, life was frightening and lonely. The strangeness of this new existence - its religious and cultural shifts - left David confused and questioning not only his faith but his very sense of self. But, with time, David realised that the rural world was also beautiful. Far from the cramped and often poverty-stricken East End, the countryside was wild and wonderful - an adventure playground in which a curious lad was free to flourish. Immersed in the ebb and flow of country life, David harboured a secret. Increasingly, he didn't want to return to the dirty streets of the East End. Sometimes, he didn't want the war to end. David's moving memoir is about a small boy's burgeoning love of the countryside and the confusion he felt about not missing - and not missing - home. Set against a wartime backdrop of flaming skies and pluming black smoke, it is a celebration of the wonder and tranquility of the natural world that changed the shape of his life."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Also issued online.