Visitors from London facts for kids
Front cover of first edition
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| Author | Kitty Barne |
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| Illustrator | Ruth Gervis |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's war novel (home front) |
| Publisher | J. M. Dent |
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Publication date
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1940 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 262 pp (first edition) |
| OCLC | 152406848 |
| LC Class | PZ7.B2593 Vi |
Visitors from London is a children's novel written by Kitty Barne, illustrated with 40 drawings by Ruth Gervis, published by Dent in 1940. Set in Sussex, it is a story of World War II on the home front; it features preparing for and hosting children evacuated from London. Barne and Visitors won the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
Dodd, Mead published a U.S. edition within the calendar year.
Plot summary
The setting is the Sussex countryside during the summer holidays of 1939. The four Farrar children are spending the holidays with their eccentric Aunt Myra. War seems far away, but is soon to impinge on their lives. Seventeen young Cockney evacuees who have never been out of London are coming to stay at Steadings, a nearby farmhouse which has been standing empty. The Farrars help with the preparations, finding staff and generally organizing everything. Then the evacuees arrive, and the Farrars find themselves out of their depth.
Origins
The author knew the subject first hand, being involved in Operation Pied Piper, the initial phase of the evacuation of children from the cities to the English countryside during the Second World War. As a member of the Women's Voluntary Service she was responsible for the reception of evacuees in her native Sussex.
