Brian Perks is a former journalist, editor and trade journal publisher. He is a former British subject, now a Canadian Citizen, and lives in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
At the outbreak of the Second World War he was evacuated with thousands of other young children from the City of London.
He was 5 years old at the time.
NOTE: The author accepts speaking engagements.
I have written a book: The Plight of Wartime Child Evacuees: One Boy’s Story
The initial focus of One Boy’s Story is a four day period in 1939 that saw 827,000 school children, in the United Kingdom, evacuated from major cities to escape anticipated German bombing. The children, aged 5 to 14, were evacuated en masse without their parents. They stayed with “volunteer guardians” for the duration of the war.
“One Boy’s Story” tells of the plight that befell many – the exper- ience of existing in an emotional vacuum without love and guidance from a parental figure, and the harsh reality of never being safe in a country at war.
Wartime photographs of sad evacuees and buildings destroyed by enemy bombing give the book a poignancy and visual depth.
The book becomes a social document at the conclusion of the main memoir narrative. The author argues that the true story of emotional deprivation experienced by wartime child evacuees has never been fully explored. He additionally argues that the absence of parental love and guidance in wartime Britain offers an object lesson as to its importance.
The author suggests that today’s young people (“the parents of tomorrow”) can gain an understanding and appreciation of supportive parenting by reviewing and debating the negative realities of the evacuation.
The main narrative is written in a style that is suggestive of a very young person telling the story. The technique facilitates easy reading in a classroom setting by students at different age levels.
My Website: http://www.brian-perks.com/index.html
