Monday 11th June 2012
“A few years ago when John Forbat and his wife, who live in Weybridge, were researching their family trees, they came to Warminster, having discovered details of ancestors who lived here (and at Frome). I have just received an email from John Forbat, who has kept in touch with me, to say he has had a book published. Here are the details.”
Evacuee Boys, Letters Of A Family Separated By War by John E. Forbat, is published by The History Press. Paperback. £8.99. ISBN: 978-0-7524-7123-5
Brothers John and Andrew Forbat had been happily living in England as patriotic British boys since 1936. When the Second World War broke out, however, the brothers found themselves evacuated to a disadvantaged part of Melksham in Wiltshire, cut off from home and family, and in austere circumstances. Added to this, on Pearl Harbor Day 1941, Hungary, along with other countries, joined the Axis and the Hungarian Forbat family became Enemy Aliens.
Their many letters home throughout the war, with details of their schooling, bullying, friendships and constant pursuit of more pocket money, form a humorous and at times tragic testament to the hardships of war. Interspersed with diary entries made by the boys’ father back home in Blitz-ravaged London and letters from Andrew when he was interned on the Isle of Man, Evacuee Boys is as full a record of war-torn Britain as one family could provide.
Available from all good Bookshops or directly from The History Press, telephone: 01235 465577 and www.thehistorypress.co.uk
To see the book’s details on its own page: click on
www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/evacuee-boys/9780752471235/
The book is also available from Amazon. Click on
www.amazon.co.uk/Evacuee-Boys-Letters-Family-Separated/dp/0752471236/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339427440&sr=1-7
About the Author: John E. Forbat was born in Hungary but emigrated to England in 1936 with his family. In 1939, along with thousands of other children, he and his older brother Andrew were evacuated away from London to a deprived part of Melksham, Wiltshire. Returning to London later in war, John went on to become the youngest Fireguard in the London Blitz. He later completed a BSc (Eng) in Aeronautical Engineering, married and raised five children. He now lives in Weybridge, Surrey.