Carrie's War

Carrie's War is an exciting and moving account of the lives of children sent away from home during the Second World War, based on Nina Bawden's own childhood experience. To escape the bombs falling on London, Carrie and her younger brother Nick are evacuated from their home to a small Welsh village where they are taken in by the village grocer, Mr Evans, who's mean and unfriendly, and his timid sister, Lou. The children befriend another evacuee, Albert, who seems to have had more luck. He lives at a mysterious house called Druid's Bottom where he's looked after by the housekeeper, Hepzibah Green. The children are entranced by Hepzibah's magical stories, including one about the curse of the screaming skull. And it's this story that leads Carrie to do something she regrets for the rest of her life . . . Carrie's War is part of the Macmillan Collector's Library, a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics bound in cloth with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

Nina Bawden, born in Essex in 1925, was a prolific, distinguished and prize-winning novelist. Many of her children's novels, including Carrie's War and The Peppermint Pig, have become cherished classics. She also wrote acclaimed adult fiction, notably Circles of Deceit, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her books have been published in translation around the world and some have been adapted for film and television. In many of her more than forty books, she weaved elements of her own life into her plots. In addition, she wrote an autobiography as well as a memoir describing her experiences during and following the Potters Bar rail crash in 2002 in which her husband died and she was seriously injured. She died in London in 2012.