Book description
In 1939, John Wright, a four-year-old boy from a deprived but
loving Middlesbrough home, was uprooted from his family and evacuated
to a large house in North Yorkshire, requisitioned as a nursery
school. His story is not unlike any other during the upheaval of
wartime, but in this remarkably lucid and detailed set of
recollections, a seventry-three-year-old man tells his story of love,
loss and life with the delight and fear of a wartime child. His
poignant memories of cruelty and hurt are set against a beautiful
voyage of discovery as a young boy explores the Yorkshire countryside
and comes of age in a unique environment, only to be struck by an
unbearable tragedy. A bittersweet tale of innocence and stark
realities, Child From Home explores why wartime means so much to our
collective memory - and reveals the devastating effect we have on
children as we try to protect them from conflict.
John T Wright was born in a socially deprived area of
Middlesbrough in 1935. In 1939 he was evacuated with his little
brother George to North Yorkshire. As an adult, he worked in a
steelworks, made racing bicycles and served in the RAF for five years,
before becoming an analytical technician at ICI Billingham. In 1975 he
moved to Royal Leamington Spa with his wife and young family to take
up a teaching post.
