The Reading Column IV

-Akhila Seshadri
May is the month to go away (from wherever you are) in India. This time, I
review an all time favourite of mine. It has also got to do with going away.
The book: Carries War
The author: Nina Bawden is one of the few novelists who is equally
successful in writing both for adults and for children. She remembers her own
childhood very clearly and many of her childrens boo!s have been ins"ired by
the "laces she !new and the things that ha""ened to her when she was young#
her grandmothers house in $orfol! where she first heard the story of The
%e""ermint %ig and the mining valley in &ales where she lived during wartime
evacuation from 'ondon, (ust li!e the heroine of )arries &ar.
*rom school, she went to Somerville )ollege, +,ford, where she studied
%hiloso"hy, %olitics and -conomics in the same year as Margaret Thatcher. She
had always li!ed writing and finished her first novel (for adults) the year after
gaining her degree. She wrote several more before her first childrens boo!, The
Secret %assage, which was written es"ecially for her three children, after they
had discovered a secret "assage in the cellar of their house. $ow that her family
is grown u", $ina .awden lives for "art of the year in $au"lion in /reece (the
ins"iration for The 0eal %lato 1ones) and, for the rest, on the ban!s of the
0egent )anal in 'ondon, in a tall terrace house (the setting for The 0obbers).
$ina has continued to write both for adults and children. Many of her childrens
boo!s have been filmed, or ada"ted for television and all have been widely
translated into many languages including 0ussian and 1a"anese.
What She Says
2I li!e writing for children. It seems to me that most "eo"le underestimate their
understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my boo!s for them I try to
"ut this right.2
2In a sense I write the same sort of boo!s for adults and children. I su""ose
what interests me most are characters, "articularly childrens, relationshi"s with
each other.2
2I never decided to become a writer: I always thought I was one.2
2I was a !eyhole child 3 fearsomely curious. I always wanted to !now what the
grownu"s were u" to.2
24orrible characters are lovely to write about because you can get your own
bac! on all sorts of "eo"le you never li!ed when you were young.2
The Re!iew:
This was one boo! that in a fit of wanting my children to read certain boo!s, I
included in a set of boo!s I carried from home to !ee" in the classroom. 5nd it
was the one boo! that went missing. I have not yet recovered from that loss,
though I later re"laced it.
)arrie6s &ar is about a brother and sister who were among the thousands of
children from 'ondon, who were evacuated in antici"ation of 4itler6s .lit7. &ith
ty"ical .ritish efficiency children were given names, labels and assigned to
8foster "arents6 in the country who would loo! after them till it was safe for them
to return.
In the words of .awden:
"When I was twelve, the war came. My brother and I were evacuated in a
school train, labelled like parcels with our names and addresses hung on cards
round our necks, to a mining valley in South Wales. We lived there for three
years with a number of foster parents, some nice, some nasty, but chiefly, like
Mr. Evans in "arrie!s War", a mi"ture of both. Since billets were scarce, we had
to learn to keep on the right side of our hosts, which meant watching them rather
more closely and warily than most children need to watch adults
The %lot Summary: In the boo! the main "rotagonists are )arrie and her
brother, $ic!. .ut the story is told through )arrie6s mind, eyes and feelings.
In the years of the Second &orld &ar, with an imminent invasion of -ngland
antici"ated, and with the blit7!rieg targeting 'ondon, children were evacuated
and sent to live in the countryside. It must have been difficult for strangers to ta!e
care of children in times of want and scarcity and quite tough for children to be
8"arcelled off6 to total strangers away from mothers and fathers.
$ic! and )arrie live in a &elsh mining town with a brother and sister who live
above their grocery store. Mr. -vans and 5unt 'ou ta!e in the children. Mr.
-vans, brought u" in strict rule3boo!3)hristian way, is difficult to li!e and
understand, and 5unt 'ou bends the other way, ma!ing it equally difficult for the
children to li!e or en(oy her eagerness to "lease.
The children find en(oyment in the home of Mr. -vans other sister 9ilys
/otobed at 9ruid6s .ottom where they discover Miss 4e"7ibah, 1ohnny /otobed
and another boy, 5lbert Sandwich. 9ilys married a rich miner and lived grandly till
all the money ran out, with her house!ee"er, 4e"7ibah and 1ohnny, who is
retarded. The stay gets less grim because of their e,"eriences and adventures
there.
In the story, $ina weaves many themes# of living with strangers, of mining
families in &ales# of family, love, betrayal and conciliation. It is )arrie6s
understanding, or "erha"s, a non understanding of adult relatedness that one
sees the story through.
The entire story is a narrative of )arrie6s, though not told in the first "erson.
)arrie visits this town with her children. .ereaved of her husband, she ta!es a
nostalgic tri". +nly she !nows that she is finally confronting the "ast. &hen she
had left the town by train, she had seen something ha""en that she believed was
due something she had done: In the very last cha"ter, when the story returns to
the "resent, the reader reads about the resolution.
The etching of characters is so well crafted by $ina .awden that one
understands layers and layers. The grim and stern Mr. -vans, who )arrie initially
feels is a monster, turns out to be a brother who loved his sisters well, but
"erha"s not so wisely. 5unt 'ou, timid and eager to "lease and yet turns rebel.
$ic!, the baby (initially) is the one who has a much better sense of what is
ha""ening than his elder sister )arrie. The role reversal is so subtle that only an
astute and understanding reader can feel that change.
5lbert Sandwich is unbelievably grown u" (not adult) in his ways and in his
understanding and acce"tance of circumstances that it comes as a shoc! to the
reader initially, until one delves into one6s own childhood times and sees that one
had similar flashes of such sedateness.
Stories are born of characters. $ot the other way around. It is how a character
reacts to his or her situation that decided which way the story will move# rather
li!e a river that moves initially in the given "ath and creates new landsca"e along
the way:
I would suggest that children, who read this, also read a little bit about what it
was li!e to live during the Second &orld &ar and to survive it. It would hel" to
understand what war time shortages were. *or instance, the government as!ed
"eo"le to donate aluminium sauce"ans and other vessels for there was a
shortage of this metal, which was used for a variety of defence "ur"oses; <es,
and even 8"lanes. 5nd they did.
5 good summer time read.
+ther boo!s by .awden:
0ebel on a 0oc! ()arrie a""ears again in this boo!)
4umbug
0obbers
The *inding
The %e""ermint %ig (another moving boo!, a favourite)
4enry
=ee"ing 4enry
The &hite 4orse /ang