In 1940 seven-year-old Tony Bailey was evacuated to the United States--one of more than 16,000 children sent overseas at a time when a Nazi invasion of England seemed inevitable. He spent four years with the wealthy Spaeth family in Dayton, Ohio, before returning to his parents in Southampton. Evocative, heartfelt, and charming, this is a story of a double childhood--of a boy who became American while never ceasing to be British.An original, sensitively told story in which the perspectives of the child are carefully remembered. . . . Bailey's book speaks, with gentle eloquence, not only to those who remember being boys, but to everyone who would seek to protect children from the hurts and ravagings that ordinary life can inflict, to say nothing of war. --Richard Montague, Newsday
No doubt Tony Bailey owed America something for its hospitality during those anxious years, and with this book he has amply repaid the debt. --Joseph McLellan, Washington Post
An exquisitely controlled, quietly amusing and moving story. --Publishers Weekly
As tender as it is truthful, and as amusing as it is unpretentious. --John Russell, New York Times Book Review
- ISBN10 0571117147
- ISBN13 9780571117147
- Publish Date 11 May 1981 (first published 1 January 1980)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 June 1994
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Faber & Faber
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 164
- Language English