Safe haven - the wartime letters of Ben Barman and Margaret Penrose, 1940-1943

摘要

This very unusual and for me very personal book contains letters from Margaret Penrose, my mother, to her childhood friend Penelope Barman, whose son Benjamin (Ben) lived with my family as a 'war guest' in Canada from 1940 to 1943. Also included are the letters that Ben wrote to his family. Together, the letters provide a graphic insight into the experiences of one of the several thousand children sent across the Atlantic to Canada in the summer of 1940, usually by themselves, seeking what the editor (Ben's youngest brother) aptly terms a 'Safe Haven'. This scheme, overseen by the Children's Overseas Reception Board, was set up because of concern that a German invasion of England at that time was likely.