Eva Merrill

Looking Back: Reflections of a London Child on the War Years 1939 - 1945 Eva Merrill

This book is a first hand account of the events of World War Two seen through the eyes of a teenager who spent some of this period enduring the bombing raids on London, and some of it billeted with various families in the country as an evacuee. The writing incorporates a chronological account of the main events of the War, but is written in such a way that it doesn't seem like a history book. It's a real life adventure story, sometimes funny and sometimes sad. Life wasn't all picnics in the country for an evacuee, and such things as toilets in sheds at the bottom of the garden took a lot of getting used to for a little city girl. As a source of information on the social history of Britain, this book is invaluable as there are all sorts of details that you wouldn't normally find in text books. It's written with a sense of the ridiculous and Eva's description of how the family actually used their Morrison Table shelter could be a script for a comedy sketch. Above all, this is a book with universal appeal and is to be recommended to anyone with an interest in the war years as well as schools and colleges where the subject is taught.