I'll Take That One: An Evacuee's Childhood

Kitty Baxter was born in London in 1930, the daughter of a road sweeper and a cleaner and one of five children. War broke out just as Kitty turned nine and she became one of thousands of children evacuated to the countryside. This would be the first of three times that she was rehoused far from home over the course of the war. Sometimes treated more like a servant than a small child, Kitty endured gruelling years cut off from her parents rather than a safe haven from war. She recalls her experiences living with strangers’ families in environments radically different to working-class London and how she navigated joyful moments and times of struggle and loss.One of the last generation of women from this era, Kitty’s voice remains as whip-smart as her irrepressible nine-year-old self who triumphed over the adversity of a most unusual childhood. Allison and Busby are proud to be publishing the memoir of Kitty Baxter who recounts her moving and evocative life during the Second World War when she was evacuated three times. Kitty has long been a popular draw for the media as one of the increasingly rare number of surviving evacuees so there is already great interest in her memoir Kitty remains whip-smart and witty and has delivered a wonderful account of strife and joy in war torn London and the unfamiliar world of an evacuee far from home.