Carrie's War
05 March 2026Synopsis
Written in 1973, Carrie’s War is an exciting and very moving account of the lives of children sent away from home during the Second World War, based on Nina Bawden’s own childhood experience.
Carrie’s War is part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics bound in cloth with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.
To escape the bombs falling on London, Carrie and her younger brother Nick are evacuated from their home to a small Welsh village where they are taken in by the village grocer, Mr Evans, who’s mean and unfriendly, and his timid sister, Lou. The children befriend another evacuee, Albert, who seems to have had more luck. He lives at a mysterious house called Druid’s Bottom where he’s looked after by the housekeeper, Hepzibah Green. The children are entranced by Hepzibah’s magical stories, including one about the curse of the screaming skull. And it’s this story that leads Carrie to do something she regrets for the rest of her life . . .
Details
05 March 2026
9781035082445Reviews
A poignant and realistic picture of what the second world war was like for a child . . . Carrie's War captures the true reality of war for a child, and it doesn't sentimentalise war
Delicately done, full of accurate and unsentimental understanding
Perhaps the best of Nina Bawden's excellent novels
Always an important book, but even more so now with the refugee and asylum seeker crisis that brings the book new relevance
