Before the Last All Clear

"Except for Mam and Dad, none of us had ever been out of Liverpool before, never mind on a train." This is the story of one young boy from Liverpool, whose family was sent to the Welsh town of Llanelli for the duration of the war. Separated from his mother, and brothers and sisters, six-year-old Raymond Evans was shunted from pillar to post. At first he had a miserable time, unwanted and largely unloved, and it appeared that his war would be spent without any family - real or surrogate. Ray's world is one of ration books, black-out curtains, air-raid sirens and sudden death; a world in which humanity triumphs despite its own shortcomings.