Wartime memories of evacuee letters

Bridport author Sarah Shaw’s new book From Doodlebugs to Devon explores life on the Home Front during the Second World War through a series of letters written by her mother to her father in 1944-45. They vividly describe what it was like to be under fire from the V1/flying bombs and the difficulties she faced as an evacuee in Budleigh Salterton.

Although she speaks for so many, she is no ordinary housewife. A perceptive observer of contemporary

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events and the ups and downs of family life, she might have married a Nazi back in the 1930s. Instead, by 1945 she simply longs for the war to end so she, her husband and young son can live together at last. Other half-forgotten stories emerge too. The casualties and devastation of London and its suburbs caused by doodlebugs, the first ‘pilotless’ missiles and forerunners of the drone bombs currently in use in Ukraine, are today barely remembered. Or that the War Cabinet vacillated over a deception plan hatched by the secret services which deliberately put south London in their firing line – but did it work? That a libertarian MP in collusion with the Daily Mail deliberately broke the law and was fined by the courts. Or that a Home Guard operation took place in Rosyth at the same time as a Russian naval force moved into the dockyard.

‘This is the book I’ve always wanted to write,’ says Sarah. ‘My mother’s letters are so vivid and witty. Although I’ve had them for decades, it was only when I retired that I had enough time to research answers to the questions they raised.” n From Doodlebugs to Devon is available from The Bridport Bookshop or online, (ebook available).

From pages 68-69