Gillian Mawson

I am a writer and historian with a passionate interest in the life stories of ordinary people. Between 2008 and July 2016 I interviewed over 600 Second World War evacuees to record and preserve their stories, photographs and documents. My 3rd book on British Evacuation is published on 30 November 2016 by Frontline Books. It is entitled 'Evacuation in the Second World War Told Through Newspaper Reports, Official Documents and the Accounts of Those Who Were There.' It contains personal testimony, wartime photographs and documents from hundreds of child and adult evacuees who spent the war years in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Testimony is also included from evacuees who were sent to the British mainland from The Channel Islands and Gibraltar. It can be pre-ordered on Amazon now. See my blog for updates at: https://evacueesofworldwartwo.wordpress.com/ My previous book, 'Evacuees: Children's Lives on the World War Two Home Front' was published by Pen and Sword in Sept. 2014. It contains 100 personal evacuation stories, with wartime family photographs, collected from all over Britain and beyond. My first book was 'Guernsey Evacuees: The Forgotten Evacuees of the Second World War' (History Press, 2012) When I discovered that 17,000 Guernsey evacuees had fled to England in June 1940, just before Germany occupied their island for 5 years, I was drawn in by this little known story! The evacuees - mostly children, teachers and mothers - received friendship and help from their English neighbours and also from American and Canadian citizens - one girl was financially supported throughout the war by Eleanor Roosevelt. Many evacuees chose not to return to Guernsey after the war. View my book trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR0uXCBCFHc&feature=youtu.be I have also written a chapter entitled 'Guernsey Mothers: The Forgotten Evacuees' which appears in the book 'The Home Front in Britain:Images, Myths and Forgotten Experiences 1914-2014' (Palgrave MacMillan, November 2014) I have organised evacuee reunions and run a community group in Manchester for Guernsey evacuees, who did not return home in 1945. This enables them to share their wartime stories with people of all ages. I have also written articles for magazines and newspapers on other historical subjects and am working on a 4th book, with a colleague, which is not evacuee-related. My Guernsey website and blog can be found at: http://guernseyevacuees.wordpress.com/evacuation/ My general History blog can be found at: https://evacueesofworldwartwo.wordpress.com/ Gillian Mawson, August 2016