Dewithon 2024: Carrie's War by Nina Bawden

'A touching, utterly convincing book' (Jaqueline Wilson)

     'Poignant and realistic....Carrie's War captures the true reality of war for a child, and it doesn't sentimentalise war.' (Shirley Hughes, The Guardian.)

Those of us of a certain age will remember the BBC's Sunday afternoon serials. Follyfoot, Black Beauty, Catweazle, and perhaps most loved of them all, Carrie's War. 

There were only five episodes of the 1974 series, but they made an impression - so much so that I can still remember them now. They were filmed in Blaengarw, a village thirty miles north west of Cardiff; the author, Nina Bawden, had been evacuated there in 1940, just as my own mother had been sent from her London home to Rhiwderin. I have never forgotten Hepzibah or Mr Johnny Gotobed, and Dewithon gave me the perfect reason to read the original book.

It's a book about families and the things that can tear them apart. It's about the fears and frustrations of childhood, the value of friendships, and the complex nature of adult relationships - but it's also a cracking story and one that can be enjoyed on more than one level.

Carrie and her younger brother Nick, suitcases in their hands and gas masks round their necks, are sent from London to Wales to avoid Hitler's bombs. On arrival they and all the other children are shepherded into the chapel so that their local - and often very reluctant - hosts can choose which ones they want. Like my mother, Carrie and Nick are some of the last to be chosen; farmers want boys, and few people want two children if they can get away with one. (In those days there was no such thing as Enhanced Disclosure, or indeed any vetting at all; my mother had a wonderful time at the home of a childless couple, but some of her school friends suffered terribly.)

Eventually Miss Louise Evans is persuaded to take them. She's a kind woman but lives entirely under the iron rule of her bullying older brother, who owns the village shop. Mr Evans is obsessively religious, very parsimonious, and given to terrifying outbursts of temper. Louise, or Auntie Lou as the children soon call her, does everything to avoid his wrath, and begs the children to do the same. They are not allowed to go upstairs to their bedroom more than once a day in case they wear out the stair carpet. Auntie Lou is proud of her bathroom, but Carrie and Nick are ordered to use the earth privy at the end of the garden. Food is adequate but strictly limited.

1974 TV adaptation

The Evans' older sister, Mrs Dilys Gotobed, lives in a huge and crumbling house called Druid's Bottom. She married the mine owner's son and went up in the world, living a grand life of parties and travel. Her husband is now long dead and she herself is dying; the mine is closed. Mr Evans, however, has never forgiven her for marrying an Englishman, and more importantly the son of the owner of the mine in which the Evans's father had just been killed in an accident. The mine was badly managed by Mr Gotobed senior; if he had taken better precautions, Mr Evans senior would not have died. 

Mr Evans refuses to allow Lou to visit Dilys, but he is prepared to accept a goose from her poultry farm every Christmas. The children are sent to collect it, and there, after a frightening walk through Druid's Grove, they meet Hepzibah, Mrs Gotobed's housekeeper and carer, and Mr Johnny, a special needs man who's a distant Gotobed cousin. They also find that a fellow evacuee, the bookish Albert Sandwich, is staying at Druid's Bottom - he told the billeting officer that he liked reading, and Druid's Bottom has a library. The children are at first afraid of Mr Johnny, whose speech is incomprehensible to them, but Albert understands him, and soon Nick becomes his great friend. 

Hepzibah, Mr Johnny and especially Albert Sandwich are wonderful creations. This book is short, but in just a few scenes Bawden makes us feel we know these exceptional characters. 

'A warm, safe, lighted place. Hepzibah's kitchen was always like that...coming into it was like coming home on a bitter cold day to a bright leaping fire. It was like the smell of bacon when you were hungry; loving arms when you were lonely; safety when you were scared.'

The house has no electricity because there is no longer any money to buy a generator. Instead there are oil lamps and an open fire. Hepzibah is kind. She is a wonderful cook. She may or may not be a witch (she knows a lot about herbal cures and local folklore, although she is not in fact Welsh.) The children adore her. 

Albert is sensible, calm and thoughtful, the complete opposite of the volatile and emotional Carrie. Mr Johnny knows everything about nature, and introduces Nick to the many delights of the countryside, including his own cow, and the gulls' nesting site on the mountain. Soon the children are visiting Druid's Bottom whenever they can, much to the consternation of Mr Evans. Nick sings Hepzibah's praises, not caring if he makes Mr Evans angry, but Carrie tries her best to balance both worlds, 

'I thought Hepzibah Green was quite nice. But the house is awfully old and dark and big,  isn't it? And we were a bit scared of Mr Johnny!'

At the age of twelve Carrie is already horribly aware of the need to keep everyone happy, torn between her loyalty to her new friends and her duty to tell the truth (as she perceives it) to her host. And what if Hepzibah is a witch? What if, as Mr Evans has seemed to suggest, she is using her powers to control Mrs Gotobed? Carrie overhears conversations but, as we all do as children, sometimes misconstrues them. When, myself a child, I watched the TV series,  I too wondered about Hepzibah. She was fascinating and other worldly. I was entranced.

Christmas comes and goes. A year passes. Carrie helps Mr Evans in the shop. The children meet Mrs Gotobed, who wears her old ball gowns in true Miss Havisham style - although in this case, the thoughtful Albert has suggested that they might cheer her up. Carrie has her birthday, and we begin to see that Mr Evans is not all bad.

This is one of Bawden's great strengths; with skill and subtlety she shows, not tells, us that everyone has good and bad points, and that there is often a reason for adults' confusing and frightening behaviour. Mr Evans has had a terribly hard life. His father left him nothing, his wife has died, his son, who is in the army, is an unpleasant character who turns up on leave and makes it clear that he has no intention of taking over Mr Evans' much prized shop. Whilst none of this excuses his strictness and temper, Carrie beings to realise that he is really a well meaning man, and that he too is suffering. 

Eventually the children leave Wales, but just before they do, Carrie does something she knows she shouldn't, something terrible. The consequences of her actions haunt her even now -  for the story is framed by that of the adult Carrie, now widowed and returning to the village with her own children when they are on holiday.

'I did a dreadful thing, the worst thing of my life, when I was twelve and a half years old, and nothing can change it'

She still believes that her wicked deed sparked a a tragic chain of events, yet when she arrives at Druid's Bottom, she discovers that not everything turned out quite as she had thought all those years ago, and we are left with a tantalising glimmer of hope for her future. Will things maybe resolve in the way they should have on the day she left the village?

Carrie's War was dramatised again by the BBC in 2004, and shown as a full length film starring Keeley Fawcett, Alun Armstrong, Geraldine McEwen and Pauline Quirke. Both the original 1974 series and the later TV film are available on DVD.

The 2004 BBC adaptation

Carrie's War is a story at once exciting and elegiac. I loved its depiction of life in a small Welsh village over eighty years ago, and although I found it particularly interesting because of my mother's childhood experience, I think anyone would enjoy this brilliant book.