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Britain's lost children

29/8/2014

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This summer we have had a house full of children and watching them play and jump endlessly in and out of the swimming pool made me reflect on a book I published last year about three children who lose their home, their family, even their country.  Their lives could not have been more different from the excited little grandchildren charging around our house.


A couple of years ago I came across an article about the children who had been sent to the colonies as migrants, many of them wrongly labelled as orphans and under the delusion that their families were dead.  I was amazed, not only that such a thing could happen in Britain but also that it had been kept secret for so many years.  If it hadn't been for a chance circumstance, many of those children, now adults, would never have been reunited with their families.  A social worker, Margaret Humphreys, was assigned the case of a woman who claimed that she had been deported from Britain when she was only four years old.  That was in 1986; since then Mrs Humphreys has discovered that as many as 150,000 children were sent abroad by the British government to start new lives.  The last case being as recently as 1967.  Director and founder of the Child Migrants' Trust Mrs Humphreys has worked tirelessly to help these children find surviving members of their families.  Her book EMPTY CRADLES tells of the first seven years of her struggle to bring this knowledge out into the open and to help those involved.


The article that I had chanced upon inspired me to read extensively around this subject and in the end to write a book of my own.  THE ONLY BLUE DOOR is fiction, a novel based on true occurrences and drawn from the real experiences of those immigrant children.  It is the story of the three Smith children from Bethnal Green who, through a series of unfortunate incidents, find themselves on a boat to Australia in 1941.  This is not a story of tears and recriminations but rather the story of how each child, in their own way, struggles to make the best of their lives and never gives up the hope of being reunited.


THE ONLY BLUE DOOR is available as an ebook and in paperback.


HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY INDIE REVIEW January 2014

Most of us are familiar with child evacuation during World War 2, but I wonder how many know about child migrants who were sent to South Africa, Australia and Canada to avoid danger? The Only Blue Door follows the story of Maggie, Billy and Grace, siblings who become victims of the good intentions of people believing them to have been orphaned during the Blitz. Shipped to Australia to start a new life, the children are separated and so begins Maggie’s struggle to prove her mother still lives and to bring the family back together.Based on actual events, this beautifully written story had me gripped and emotionally attached to the characters and their struggles. Apparently well researched, it provides some insight into the long term impact of the events unfolding between 1939 and 1945, without being clichéd. The tireless work and battles with ‘red tape’ of the organisations involved in evacuation and subsequent repatriation of thousands of children over this period, is aptly represented in the story.

The writing style is engaging and accurate, with fully rounded and believable characters. I will not only be recommending this book but also looking to read more of this authors work. Not every story has a happy ending, but maybe this one does?


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THE WRITING PROCESS Blog Tour

6/4/2014

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I have always been a reluctant blogger.  I often feel that I am searching for things to write about that are not that important and would actually prefer to spend my writing time working on my novels.  Not that blogs can't be interesting and worth reading - many of them are, especially when they are written by someone who knows what they are talking about.  Others, however, can be repetitive and time-wasting.  Nevertheless I have come to realise that if I want to let people know about what I write and why I write it, there is no better way than to write a blog.  So I was pleased to get an invitation from Lorraine Mace, who also writes under the pen-name of Frances di Plino, to take part in the Writing Process Blog Tour.  The idea is that each participant invites two or three other writers to join the tour and everyone answers the same four questions about their work.  It's a bit like pyramid selling but no money changes hand.  You can read Lorraine's blog here.
I have invited the following two authors to take part next week:  Paul Anthony, a well-known writer of crime thrillers and Welsh writer and photographer,Jean Gill.  The questions they will answer are:

WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?


So now it's my turn to answer:
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WHAT AM I WORKING ON?
I have just finished writing a novel entitled THE SHINING CITY and I'm at the self-publishing stage.  

The novel is the story of a city, a city that is now in ruins and lies five kilometres outside of Cordoba in Spain: MADINAT AL ZAHRA.  The story is set in the 10th century, a time when southern Spain was under the rule of the Moors.  The ruler, Caliph Al Rahman III was rich, powerful and cultured.  His caliphate was, at long last, at peace and the capital, Cordoba, was considered to be not only the most beautiful city in the civilised world but also the seat of learning and culture.  Against this background we meet the artisan Qasim - he and his family have moved to Madinat al Zahra to make their fortune as potters.  

Qasim is a good husband and father.  He works hard, says his prayers and keeps out of trouble.  But Qasim has a secret; his past is not what it seems.  When a stranger arrives asking questions about him, and his youngest son falls in love with the caliph’s concubine, he realises that all he has worked for could be destroyed.  He has to take action.

I have just finished putting the final touches to the book cover and published it as an ebook on Kindle.  The paperback version is with the printers and I have other ebook versions to do, for Smashwords, Kobo etc.  While I am waiting for the proof to come back from the printers I will start the marketing process again - and probably more blogging.  I have a great idea for a new novel but that will have to wait for a bit.  If only I had a marketing agent!


HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

It's always difficult to categorise things exactly, especially something as wide-ranging as a novel.  Some of my work could slot quite easily into Historical Fiction, but that in itself is a very broad category and doesn't tell you very much except that the story is set sometime in the past.  If there is one thing all my books have in common it is their approach to women - they all have strong, female protagonists and the stories are about how they overcome adversity.  
For many years I was a lecturer in Behavioural Studies and I am fascinated by the interactions between people of all ages and from all walks of life.  My characters do nothing without a reason - I like to imagine what drives them to take the actions they do and show it to the reader.

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WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

This is an interesting question.  When I bemoan my lack of sales, my husband says that I should start writing books that sell: crime fiction, stories about vampires and time shifters, fantasy.  I just shake my head.  I write what I write because I enjoy doing it.  I write about women because I know women; I know how their minds work; I know the problems women face daily; I know the discrimination that has shaped women's lives and still does, to some extent, today.  
They say that you should write about what you know and that is one reason that many of my books are set in Spain - a country I have come to love.
I also write about history because I enjoy it.  I love doing the research - in fact I sometimes have to curtail my reading because I could spend all my time researching instead of writing.  


"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." 
George Santayana 

There is a lot to be learnt from history that applies to the present day and I like to write books that say something meaningful.

HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

My writing process varies according to the stage that I am at.  For example, once I have an idea, I make a draft outline of how I think the book will be then I list the characters and start creating them.  Then, depending on the story, I may break off and start doing some research into the background.  For example, when I wrote THE ONLY BLUE DOOR, I got the idea from an article in the newspaper about child migrants who were trying to trace their families.  I was fascinated and began to read as much as I could about what had happened.  In that case, it was only when I had fully researched the history of these events that I began to sketch out my story.  That's the point when I try to adopt a work routine: start writing at 10am and keep going until 2pm.  The morning is the best part of the day for me to work creatively.  I prefer to monitor my progress through hours rather than a word count.  I am not a writer who starts at the beginning and goes right through to the end; I am constantly rewriting, editing, rereading, cutting out characters, bringing in new ones.  For me a word count does not reflect the amount of work that I've done.  Until the book has been professionally edited and proof-read, it is not finished.


SO ON TO THE OTHERS:
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Paul Anthony is the author of a dozen books which include the Boyd series and the Davies King series. Specialising in crime fiction thrillers, Paul is a retired British counter terrorist detective who populates his stories with a variety of very intriguing characters.
HE WILL BE HOSTING HIS PART OF THE TOUR FROM ... 
http://paulanthonys.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-blog-tour.html


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Jean Gill is a Welsh writer and photographer living in the south of France with a very big white dog, a scruffy black one, a Nikon D700 and a man. She taught English in Wales for many years and her claim to fame is that she was the first woman to be a secondary headteacher in Carmarthenshire. She is the mother or stepmother to five children so life has been pretty hectic.
JEAN WILL BE HOSTING HER PART OF THE TOUR FROM www.jeangill.blogspot.com


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The children that people forgot: Britain's sea evacuees

30/3/2014

2 Comments

 
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Britain’s Sea evacuees: “The child, the best immigrant”

Because children were young and malleable they were seen as the best category of immigrant - easy to assimilate, more adaptable and with a long working life ahead of them.  The British Dominions loved them.

Something that only came to light a few years ago was the fact that thousands of children had been sent as child migrants to countries such as Australia and Canada from Britain and never knew their own parents.  A social worker called Margaret Humphreys stumbled on this by accident in 1986, when a former child migrant asked her for assistance in locating her relatives.  She has since formed the Child Migrant Trust and subsequently helped many people to be reunited with their families.

Throughout the late 19th century thousands of children were routinely sent out to the overseas British Dominions to start new lives, and this continued during the 20th century until as late as the 1960s.  They were taken from orphanages run by religious and charitable institutions and despatched to Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  Some were as young as four and five; others were teenagers.  Most of the children came from deprived backgrounds and it was considered to be for their own good that they were plucked from poverty and sent to a country where there was good food and new opportunities for them.  The receiving countries welcomed them - they needed people and children were so much easier to mould into their way of life than adults.

So when World War II broke out in 1939 there was already a precedent for sending children abroad to start new lives.  June 1940 saw the start of heavy bombing raids across London and, with the threat of an enemy invasion becoming more and more real, it was then that the British government decided to set up the Children’s Overseas Reception Board to send children, whose parents could not afford to send them to safety, to the Dominions.  They enlisted help from charities with experience of child migration, such as the Barnado’s Homes, Fairbridge Farm Schools, the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church.  However the plan was not warmly received by everyone - Winston Churchil thought it was a defeatist move and others warned of the disruption it would cause to families.  Nevertheless within two weeks CORB had received over 200,000 applications from parents who wanted to send their children to safety.  Parents often volunteered the names of relatives or friends who would look after the children in their new country and homes were found for the others by CORB representatives or the charities.

In the first few months CORB despatched over three thousand children to the Dominions.  Then tragedy struck.  All shipping traffic was subject to attacks from German U-boats and on 17th September 1940, the City of Benares, sailing from Liverpool for Canada with 197 passengers on board, was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic.  Ninety of the passengers were children.  It was a dreadful night, with gale-force winds and driving rain; 131 of the crew and 134 passengers were killed, among them seventy CORB children.  The reaction in Britain was one of horror and recrimination.  It had already been suggested that it was too risky to send children overseas during the war now the sceptics had been proved correct.  It was decided that no more children were to be sent to the Domninions unless their ship was in a protective convoy.  As there were not enough ships to use in the convoys that meant the end of the Sea Evacuee scheme.  The children had to take their chance in Britain.  Unlike other child migrants, most of the sea evacuees returned to Britain once the war was over.  But child migration continued until 1967 when the last nine children were sent to Australia by the Barnado’s Homes charity.

In my novel ‘The Only Blue Door’, the three children are sent to Australia under the CORB scheme in one of the last ships to take sea evacuees to the Dominions.  Unlike the other CORB children they are sent from an orphanage which had taken them in, believing them to be orphans.

If you want to read more about this topic I can recommend “New Lives for Old” by Roger Kershaw and Janet Sacks, “Innocents Abroad” by Edward Stokes and Margaret Humphreys’ book “Empty Cradles”.

<a href="http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae114/dr_grace423/EHFABlogbutton-2.jpg">


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2 new book reviews from HNS INDIE REVIEW

2/2/2014

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THE ONLY BLUE DOOR

HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY INDIE REVIEW January 2014


Most of us are familiar with child evacuation during World War 2, but I wonder how many know about child migrants who were sent to South Africa, Australia and Canada to avoid danger? The Only Blue Door follows the story of Maggie, Billy and Grace, siblings who become victims of the good intentions of people believing them to have been orphaned during the Blitz. Shipped to Australia to start a new life, the children are separated and so begins Maggie’s struggle to prove her mother still lives and to bring the family back together.Based on actual events, this beautifully written story had me gripped and emotionally attached to the characters and their struggles. Apparently well researched, it provides some insight into the long term impact of the events unfolding between 1939 and 1945, without being clichéd. The tireless work and battles with ‘red tape’ of the organisations involved in evacuation and subsequent repatriation of thousands of children over this period, is aptly represented in the story.

The writing style is engaging and accurate, with fully rounded and believable characters. I will not only be recommending this book but also looking to read more of this authors work. Not every story has a happy ending, but maybe this one does?

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SPANISH LAVENDER

Reviewed by the Historical Novel Society Indie Review January 2014


In January 1937, Elizabeth makes the decision to stay in Civil War-torn Spain while her family returns to England. Her decision was, initially, made so that she could photographically record the impact of the war on Spain and her people. Finding herself alone in Malaga, she makes friends with two men, one who would be the love of her life, the other she would later marry. Seventy years later, a secret is unravelled by her granddaughter and a world of lies unearthed.

Spanish Lavender is, first and foremost, a love story. A naïve Elizabeth alone in a devastated city finds friendship and love with a young Spaniard by the name of Juan. When he becomes injured on the road to Almeria, he is taken to hospital but with no room for either Elizabeth or their mutual friend, Alex, they are separated and Elizabeth believes Juan dead.

Tragic, uplifting and beautiful, Spanish Lavender doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war, but neither does it concentrate on them. It is vital to remember that Spanish Lavender is a story of love.

The final third of the book suddenly leaps forward by seventy years, and here we meet Kate, the grandchild of Elizabeth. Initially a little confusing, this section helps answer some of the questions raised in the earlier section.  A riveting read and one for reading while wishing for warmer weather!

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Latest novel: THE ONLY BLUE DOOR

1/9/2013

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I began to write THE ONLY BLUE DOOR about two years ago, after reading an article in a magazine about children who were sent to Australia by the British government as child migrants.  Many of these children were told that their parents were dead and were either placed with foster families or put into orphanages.  It wasn't revealed until 1986, when a Nottingham social worker called Margaret Humphreys was investigating the case of one of these children, then a grown woman, that many of the children were not orphans, they had families alive and well in England.   She set about tracing more families and eventually revealed the truth of what had taken place.  (You can read her story in her book Empty Cradles.)

I felt inspired by what she had done to write a novel based on the events of that time.   The protagonists are three young children who, through a series of events, are wrongly labelled as orphans and sent to Australia.  The novel follows their stories, their heartbreak and separation, their resilience and above all their belief that one day they will find their mother and return home. 

After over a year of sending my manuscript out to every publisher and agent imaginable, I have at last decided to self-publish this latest novel.  It wasn't that it was badly received by them, in fact there was quite a lot of interest in the book but, in the end, no-one wanted to take a chance on it .  One publisher was convinced it would make an excellent Young Adult book and persuaded me to make some substantial changes to suit a younger readership.  In the end her colleagues considered that, even after my adjustments, it was  still too adult for their readers so I had to revert to the original format.  I did more editing and more changes until at last I had it as I wanted.

I have done a lot of research into the topic of child migrants, something that still pops up in the news from time to time, and have tried to be faithful to the facts even though this is a work of fiction.  Looking back, from the perspective of life today, it is hard to believe that children were taken from their homes and families and sent half-way across the world.  To us it seems callous and unfeeling but I do not doubt that many people involved truly believed that they were doing the best for the children at the time.  There was also a political agenda then, in that Australia was desperate for immigrants and welcomed these children with open arms and not too much soul-searching.

Despite the serious theme of the book, I have endeavoured to make it an enjoyable story about three children who face a new life with resilience and courage.  My biggest problem with the novel was how to give it a positive/happy ending while still staying true to the story.  You will have to read it yourself to judge whether I have managed to achieve this.

It is available in a variety of ebook formats through Smashwords and Kindle and is due to be printed in paperback within a week or so.


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    Author

    Joan Fallon is a writer and novelist living in Spain.

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