Philip Algar

Stumbling Through a Wartime Childhood Philip Algar

Tim, a little boy, growing up in Devon during the war, whose father is in a Pow camp in Germany, has no experience of peace. He witnesses wartime damage, spends nights in a Morrison shelter, watches a bomb drop near his home and sees allied troops massing before the invasion. After the war, will his father's own experiences prevent him from developing a positive relationship with his young son? Will the war claim another emotional casualty? This meticulously-researched novel is fascinating, emotional and humorous. The story begins in 1926, when the parents first meet, just after the General Strike. The book contains a graphic account of events in 1936, when Tim was born, and paints a vivid picture of life during the next two decades and the social, economic and political context in which adults and children lived from one day to the next. This book, set in Torquay and then in London, will appeal to all those interested in day to day life in the Forties and early Fifties.