This is the story of the author evacuated in 1939 at the age of six with his brother and sister from Sheffield in the North of England to the safety of relatives in Cork in Southern Ireland and his return to Britain in 1943. It ends on VE night, 1945. Neil was a practising hypnotherapist for much of his working life and on his retirement revisited this period of his childhood seeking answers to memories and flashbacks that had haunted him for more than sixty years. He tells in his preface how this was achieved. The author had an affinity with his Irish hosts and his four-year stay is not without humour, as you would expect. But the incidents he recalls include the firing of Cork's largest department store in 1942 and providing intelligence that may have led to the torpedoing of the SS Irish Oak in May 1943 by the German submarine U-607. Not yet ten, he was escorted back to Britain on the orders of the Prime Minister, de Valera. The story is certainly an emotional one, not least because of the shooting down over occupied France early in 1944 of the boy's hero, Uncle Bill. You must decide whether this little boy was an innocent used by the unscrupulous Republican agent Finnegan, by Sister Ann of "the Mission", Stan of Short's slaughter house, his wily cousin Clare who took his earnings for dresses and his uncle who took it for drink. Or whether he rose to the challenge of being separated from his parents at a very young age in difficult times. It is a one-off story told by a lad growing up too quickly. It is also one with dark undertones.
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About the Author
Neil is a Sheffield, Yorkshire lad. Born in Charlotte Road he has lived all his life in this part of Yorkshire. Except for the four years he was an evacuee to County Cork between 1939 and 1943 and while getting his wings at Cranwell in the 1950s. He left the RAF to follow a family tradition of steel-making. His grandfather was a forgemaster for Cammell Laird who made his reputation with big stuff, including navy gun barrels. Neil also spent several years with the Probabation Service before becoming a practicing hypnotherapist. His book, Neil's War, was written soon after his retirement. For something to do probably and also, as he says, to find answers to questions that had been bothering him for a while. He is working on a second book, which we can't wait to see. There can't be many people coming up to eighty taking up writing as another career, though it is of course, the new sixty.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
first class read, Could not put it down.,
This review is from: Neil's War: One boy's story of his evacuation to Ireland at the outbreak of WWII (Paperback)
Read this book in one day, it is told in very nice way that sort of takes you back to the times that are described in the book. This book is available for free to download to kindle via Amazon and that is how i read it, to be honest i would of paid for the book as it was such a good read.
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