Author Description

In Great Britain, the Second World War was declared on the day Patricia Phillips turned seven years old. A year later, she and her older brother, John, became “evacuees” when their parents made a life-or-death choice to send them to live with strangers in order to escape the Nazi bombs in their hometown of Portsmouth. Like millions of other British children, the government’s wartime evacuation scheme helped ensure Pat’s safety, but left deep emotional scars. It took an unlikely friendship with an American writer a generation her junior for Pat to bring back the traumatic memories and heal the wounds of a life forever changed by war. This inspiring memoir, written as creative nonfiction, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the healing power of friendship.