Terence Frisby - Kisses on a Postcard

Review by Babs Simspson on show 4th Feb 2010.
A tale of wartime childhood, I first heard about this book when Linda handed me a review to read on the book show just before Christmas and was so impressed by it that I immediately ordered a copy from the library. I am delighted to say that it was every bit as good as i hoped. Terence Frisby is a well-known playwright and this is an autobiographical account of his and his elder brother Jack's evacuation from London to safety in June 1940.
Terry was 7 and his brother 11 when their mother took them to the lcoal station alond with all their friends and school mates to be sent off into the unkown. Their mother was a very brave woman. She gave them a postcard already written with a space for them to fill in their new address, made them promise to post it as soon as they possibly could and entrusted them with a secret code. If they put 1 kiss at the end of the message it would mean their new home was horrible and she promised faithfully to come immediately and bring them home. 2 kisses meant it was alright and 3 that they were really happy. She then kissed them goodbye, waved them off on the train, smiling brightly then went home and cried her eyes out.
After a long journey the boys eventually arrived in Cornwall, in the hamlet of Doublebois and wee picked out by a couple - a bit like a slave market! Their new family were Uncle Jack and Auntie Rose and although things were very primitive at 7 Railway Cottages - outside privy, no electricity or mod cons of any sort - Terry and Jack knew instantly that they would be happy and secure. Not content with 3 kissed in accordance with secret code, they put kisses all round the postacard! Which must have been such a relief for their poor mother who was soon able to visit them and see for herself how kind Jack and Rose were and how well the boys were being looked after.
So, from the suburbs of London, they were 'vaccies' in deepest Cornwall, at first finding it difficult to understand the local childrens accenmts but soon exploring the wild and beautiful country side, learning to catch rabbits and fish in the nearby river.
Of course it wasn't all sunshine and happiness, the war had a habit of intruding, especially the blitz of Plymouth which they could see from the village and the inevitable spate of bad news for local families from the battlefields but it is a brilliant story told so authentically in the voice of a 7 yr old.
There is a great deal of humour and the love shines through. They wee indeed fortunate boys to be taken in by such kindly people. Its makes a wonderful change to read about good people rather than abusers and the cruelty that so often fills our books nowadays.
I would most definitely recommend this to everyone. It is very uplifting but never sentimental and it paints a very truthful picture of how life was in the countryside far from London in the 1940's.
review by babs