One of the things that has always drawn me to write historical novels is the incredible wealth of stories waiting for curious readers to discover. I’ve written extensively about some of the women of history I’ve learned about while researching my books, and while I’m on maternity leave I thought I’d dust off some of these pieces from my archives to share with you.
If you are an avid reader of historical fiction set in Britain during World War 2, it’s likely that you’ll be familiar with several events of the early war. These might be the image of families gathering around the wireless as they listened to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain officially announce that Britain was at war with Germany, or the scream of the air raid siren just after that sent Londoners straight to air raid shelters shortly after the broadcast. (This proved to be a false alarm and a poignant foreshadowing of the Blitz that would come a year later.)
One of the most sobering markers of the early war was Operation Pied Piper, which I explore in my novel The Lost English Girl. Two days before Chamberlain declared war, the massive operation to move children and other vulnerable people out of Britain’s major metropolises and into the supposed safety of the countryside started. The government believed that cities were likely to be the targets of air raids, and rural areas would likely avoid the expected bombings.1
Here a British Pathé film from 1939 shows (in the very jaunty manner typical of propaganda films of the era) the children boarding trains and parents—often mothers—waving them off from the station platforms.
Many children were sent with their schoolmates, meaning many teachers were called upon to escort their classes. Some of my own aunts and uncles were evacuated from Liverpool to North Wales. People in these more rural communities then came forward to house children. Some children loved their experience in the countryside which must have felt so foreign to them; others were miserable.
Despite the rush to evacuate children and ready Britain for war, the first months of the war were relatively uneventful compared to what we now know was to come and would become known as the “Phoney War.” During this lull, many parents decided to bring their children back home despite government advice.
However, with the ramp up of fighting during the Battle of Britain and the heavy bombing of London and other cities during the Blitz, many children who returned home to cities after the initial evacuation found themselves placed back on trains, destined for the countryside again.
It would be years before some children would return to their families permanently. Often this led to awkward or strained relations between parents and children as a child who had been ten when they were evacuated would have returned as a teenager of sixteen.
Researching Operation Pied Piper
When I was researching The Lost English Girl, I leaned heavily on newsreels like the British Pathe films included above because they are fascinating slices of history. It’s However, it’s vital to remember that they only one very specific side of history. They are propaganda films meant to promote the morale-boosting messages that the government wants the public to believe. They don’t show the fear and heartbreak that the Operation Pied Piper evacuations put families through. They don’t talk about children who never adjusted to their new surroundings or the foster families who mistreated children.
Researching any book is a layered, nuanced practice, and that is even more true when dealing with history because of the time that has passed and the agenda of whoever is telling that history. One of the most important jobs of the historical fiction author is finding what is missing from the records, whether that is the real emotions of the people touched by major events in history or the experiences of marginalized people whose stories have yet to be told. It is when an author finds those moments and uses them to build upon that historical fiction really shines.
My book The Lost English Girl is an epic saga of love, motherhood, and betrayal on the eve of World War II and is available in print, ebook, and audiobook. Further information is available on my website.
This proved to often be true, especially in places like London, Liverpool, Coventry, Glasgow, and other major manufacturing areas that saw devastating bombing during the war.
This was one of my favorite books you wrote. I shared it with many!