Valerie's wartime memoir: From London air raids to Lincolnshire pig farm - 80 years after WW2
When 88-year-old Valerie Braunston was taken into care in late 2023, her son had no option but to clear his mother’s home, only to discover a typed manuscript plus pages of hand-written notes gathering dust in her writing room.
Published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the ending of WW2, London Can Take It reveals Valerie’s remarkable first-hand account of growing up in wartime London where she spent over 5 years running the gauntlet of German air raids before being evacuated to a pig farm in Brampton, Lincolnshire. Although fascinated by her rural surroundings and endless countryside, she was desperately homesick. Her adventures in Lincolnshire included village schooling, meeting Italian prisoners of war as well as stealing cigarettes for them. Valerie plotted a return to London where she was back in time to celebrate VE Day.
Her son, Miles Bingham stated: “Discovering her manuscript covered in cobwebs was like opening up a time capsule.” Miles added, “She never stopped talking about her wartime experiences and particularly her evacuation. I just hadn’t realised that she’d written it all down some years ago. This must be one of the last eyewitness accounts from that generation that will come to light.”
London Can Take It is a tale of triumph over adversity, transporting the reader, student or researcher back to WW2, the Home Front and the experience of evacuation. Available from Amazon or via www.Londoncantakeit.co.uk