Blitz Kids (book)

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Blitz Kids
Blitz Kids (2025) book cover.jpg
Author Duncan Barrett, Nuala Calvi
LanguageEnglish
Subject Second World War, The Blitz
Publisher Headline
Publication date
24 April 2025
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Pages336 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0749575205

Blitz Kids: True Stories from the Children of Wartime Britain is a book by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, co-authors of The Sugar Girls . It was published in April 2025 as part of the commemorations for the eightieth anniversary of VE Day on 8 May that year. [1]

The book tells the stories of fifteen individuals who were children during the Second World War. Researching it, the authors spoke to more than eighty so-called Blitz Kids, before choosing a representative sample of stories. [2] These include Maureen Donovan, who was bombed out of her home in Bromley by Bow, [3] Liverpudlians Christopher Munro, whose father was missing presumed dead in the Merchant Navy, Frances Izzard, who was evacuated to Haslington in Cheshire, and Clare McGann, mother of the actors Paul McGann, Stephen McGann, Mark McGann and Joe McGann, [4] Irene Brown, who saw the troops departing on D-Day in Southampton, [5] Doreen Cadden, who survived Operation Moonlight Sonata in Coventry, [6] Doreen McBride, who helped her father smuggle meat from Dublin to Belfast, [7] Brian Ingram, who spent his free time collecting shrapnel near his home in Birmingham, [8] Betty Peachy, who was buried alive during a raid in Filton, on the outskirts of Bristol, [8] and John Le Page, a Guernsey evacuee living in Halifax, West Yorkshire. [8]

Reception

The book was rated 8/10 and described as ‘poignant [and] page-turning’ by Matt Nixson in the Daily Express, [9] and recommended as ‘inspirational’ in the Sunday Express’s ‘S’ magazine. [10]

References

  1. Barrett, Duncan (8 May 2025). "Blitz Kids: celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day". Historia. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
  2. Barrett, Duncan; Calvi, Nuala (2025). Blitz Kids. London: Headline. p. xvi-xvii. ISBN   9781472285973.
  3. Garston, Helen (28 April 2025). "The Children of the Blitz". Yours. p. 18-19.
  4. Molyneux, Jess (8 May 2025). "Liverpool's 'Blitz Kids' more than 80 years on as nation marks VE Day". Liverpool Echo.
  5. Wiggs, Kieran (8 May 2025). "Blitz Kids tells story of Southampton Blitz survivor". Southern Daily Echo.
  6. Patel, Priyanka (5 May 2025). "Coventry woman whose home was flattened in Blitz shares twist of fate reason she survived". Coventry Telegraph.
  7. Garston, Helen (30 April 2025). "Nothing to Declare". Take a Break. p. 13.
  8. 1 2 3 Calvi, Nuala (3 May 2025). "Generation Blitz". Daily Express.
  9. Nixson, Matt (18 April 2025). "Four New History Books to Read This Week". Daily Express.
  10. Usher, Catherine (4 May 2025). "This Week We Love". Sunday Express.