One last cough from the overheated engine of the Morris 8 and the bulging doors appeared to burst at the seams, with children tumbling eagerly out and dispersing in all directions - rushing past the shabby old weather boarded cottage into the tangled orchard and, with joyous whoops, discovering the gnarled plum trees groaning under the weight of huge, glistening purple-red Victorias.
At the outbreak of World War II seven-year-old Sheila and her family left London to take refuge in Suffolk. For a city girl life was strange at first, but roaming the fields and picking wildflowers was what childhood dreams were made of. When the bombing died down, the family moved back to London, but Sheila would later return to the countryside when she, her husband John and their children arrived at Crabapple Cottage, their new home in Kent. Over the next few years, they had many adventures as they adapted to the seasonal rhythms of country life.
Sheila Newberry spent her whole life writing but it was not until she was in her 80s that she became one of the country's best-loved saga authors with books such as Bicycles and Blackberries and The Winter Baby. Evacuees and Crabapple Trees is a wonderful snapshot of her life, from her time as as an evacuee to falling in love and raising her children. Throughout all of this Sheila was writing stories, which are loved by readers to this day.
Evacuees and Crabapple Trees contains photos of Sheila throughout her life and also has a specially commissioned foreword written by bestselling saga author, Rosie Goodwin.
