Book info

• Title Carrie's War
• Author Nina Bawden
• Year 1973
• Genre Childrens

It is wartime and Carrie and her little brother Nick have been evacuated from their London home to the Welsh hills. In an unfamiliar place, among strangers, the children feel alone and find little comfort with the family they are billeted with: Mr Evans, a bullying shopkeeper and Auntie Lou, his kind but timid sister. When Carrie and Nick visit Albert, another evacuee, they are welcomed into Hepzibah Green's warm kitchen. Hepzibah is rumoured to be a witch, but her cooking is delicious, her stories are enthralling and the children cannot keep away. With Albert, Hepzibah and Mister Johnny, they begin to settle into their new surroundings. But before long, their loyalties are tested: will they be persuaded to betray their new friends?

Thoughts

I feel like I must have read this as a kid, it has that sort of friendly familiarity you get from books of your childhood. But I really couldn’t remember any of it - that it starts in the current time, all that happens as Carrie remembers her past, being evacuated to the countryside and getting caught up in the middle of a family row, and the devastating end that has traumatised her for so long. There’s ultimately a nice ending though and it’s all so realistic and well drawn that you can’t help feeling as if you’re there.

Rating: 4 / 5