Blitz Kids

While Bristol suffered terrible bombing in the blitz raids of 1940-42. A total of 18,500 children were evacuated from the city’s Elementary Schools in 1942 and sent to billets all over the West of England. Some children were welcomed and had memorably happy times…many did not. Before the end of that year 9,500 had returned home by one means or another. Children were on the run all over England.BLITZ KIDS by Ken Blackburn is the delightfully told true story of two brothers aged seven and nine, who escaped back to their Mother and Gran in Bristol not once but four times, until the authorities finally gave up on them. In 1946 they made a far greater journey to New Zealand to begin a new life and from where the boys have yet to return.Not all evacuees were so fortunate, as the unwieldy process and social upheaval caused havoc in the lives of many. Some became lost in the system and found themselves in Church Homes, Orphanages and even Reformatories from where they were deported to other parts of the Empire as Migrant Children .BLITZ KIDS was first published by BBC Broadcast Books in 1995 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of V.E. Day. This revised version is back by popular demand.