Carrie's War by Nina Bawden – based on the author's WWII evacuation to Wales

Title: Carrie’s War
Author: Nina Bawden
Publication: J.B. Lippincott Company, hardcover, 1973
Genre: Children’s Historical Fiction
Setting: WWII Wales

US cover

Description: Like many other London children in 1939, Carrie and Nick Willow were evacuated from war-torn London for safety with a case each, gas masks slung over their shoulders, and their names on cards around their neck like labels. When the train deposits them in a small Welsh mining town, they are taken in by the shy sister of the town’s grocer. Mr. Evans is a reluctant, stingy host and rigid man of God; the children are miserable, despite the kindness of Miss Evans. It is not until they are sent to fetch a Christmas goose from Druid’s Bottom, where the Evans’ married sister lives, that they make friends and come to appreciate the atmospheric countryside. Kind-hearted Hepzibah Green, housekeeper for the Evans’ sister, and fellow evacuee Albert Sandwich, welcome the children and, once they aren’t afraid of the dark route by the railway, Carrie and Nick eagerly anticipate their visits to the farm and were happy, despite being so far from home. However, 12-year-old Carrie gets caught in a family feud, which still haunts her years later, when she returns with her four children.

My Impression: I have been fascinated by evacuation stories since my mother gave me I Go By Sea, I Go By Land for Christmas one year, and I am surprised I never read this one before. It is based on the author’s own experience during WWII. According to the back cover flap, Bawden wrote, “I was born in London and lived there until I was evacuated with my school to a mining valley in Wales. During the school term I lived with various miners’ families and in vacations on a farm . . . I went from school to Somerville College, Oxford; when I left I wrote my first novel . . . for adults . . . I started to write for children when my own children discovered a secret passage in the cellar of the house we lived in.” Bawden knew how to set a mysterious scene, depicting the eerie Grove the children have to pass through to visit the farm:

Albert said, “It’s as silly to laugh as it is to be scared. There’s nothing to be scared of, any more than in an old church. I think it’s just that places where people have believed things have an odd feel to them . . . .” He was quiet for a little, then whispered, as Carrie had done, “Unless there is something else. Some secret power, sleeping . . . .”

“You’re scaring yourself!” Carrie said, and he did laugh at her then. It was easy to laugh because they were at the top of the path now, coming out of the Grove into sunlight.

The Willows are not the typical Cockney children often depicted in WWII fiction: their father is a naval officer, their mother has gone to Glasgow to drive ambulances, and they had a maid at home. The children are surprised when Miss Evans assumes they could not afford slippers, when in fact they simply did not have room in their cases.  There are a number of privations in

Could this be a Robin Jacques cover?

their temporary home (although they are treated better than the children in A Place to Hang the Moon) but the one that really seems absurd is that the children are not allowed to use the only bathroom in the house (upstairs) during the day because it would cause wear and tear on the nearby carpet! 

Unlike their friend Albert, Carrie does not seem particularly studious but enjoys school more in Wales than she did at home, although classes are held in a gloomy chapel. She settles in better to this new life than her brother.  Carrie is old enough to sympathize with Mr. Evans, although she deplores his bullying ways, but not worldly-wise enough to understand that he is anticipating an inheritance when his sister dies and will not respond well if thwarted. Her innocent revelation of what is in his sister’s will precipitates a crisis – not to mention guilt for Carrie that lasts until she returns to Wales, a widow with four children (maybe there is a future for her and Albert after all these years?).

This is my ninth book in the 2022 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader. This review is also part of the Wales Readathon sponsored by Paula at Book Jotter. The book has been dramatized more than once: I like the look of Carrie in this version and it seems to have also been on Masterpiece Theatre without my noticing, which is hard to believe! 

Source: Library