America, lost & found

by Anthony Bailey

In 1940 seven-year-old Tony Bailey was evacuated to the United Statesâ one of more than 16,000 children sent overseas at a time when a Nazi invasion of England seemed inevitable. He spent four years with the wealthy Spaeth family in Dayton, Ohio, before returning to his parents in Southampton. Evocative, heartfelt, and charming, this is a story of a double childhoodâ of a boy who became American while never ceasing to be British.

"An original, sensitively told story in which the perspectives of the child are carefully remembered. . . . Bailey's book speaks, with gentle eloquence, not only to those who remember being boys, but to everyone who would seek to protect children from the hurts and ravagings that ordinary life can inflict, to say nothing of war." â Richard Montague, Newsday

"No doubt Tony Bailey owed America something for its hospitality during those anxious years, and with this book he has amply repaid the debt." â Joseph McLellan, Washington Post

"An exquisitely controlled, quietly amusing and moving story." â Publishers Weekly

"As tender as it is truthful, and as amusing as it is unpretentious." â John Russell, New York Times Book Review

Genres: World War II

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1980

About the author

Anthony Bailey (born 1933) was a British non-fiction writer, and art historian.

He was evacuated to Dayton, Ohio, in 1940 during World War II. For many years he was a writer for the New Yorker magazine.

He died of corona virus in Colchester, Essex, which he contracted whilst in hospital for hip surgery after a fall at his home.

He lived in Mersea Island, near Colchester, Essex, with his wife Margot. They have four daughters: Liz, Annie, Katie and Rachel.

His obituary in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/bo...

Reviews

[MaryLou]

Read this book back in May before I started writing reviews, so can’t fairly rate it so many months later.

[Elizabeth K.]

This memoir was cute in a quiet sort of way. As a young boy, the author was one of the children evacuated out of England during WWII and sent to live with a volunteer host family in Ohio. There, he has adventures such as having a paper route, dressing up like pilgrims and indians at school, and going to summer camp. The whole thing is very mild and apparently he was the most resilient little boy in the world because he seemed to take to his interrupted life like a fish to water. He obviously feels very fondly about his host family -- they stayed very involved with him even after his return to England -- and his story feels very much like a sincere gesture of gratitude to them.

Grade: B
Recommended: Only if you have a particular interest in children during the war, or possibly in Dayton, Ohio. Otherwise, the lack of anything happening will be strongly noticed. It is very sweet, but honestly, nothing happens.

[Linda]

Anthony Bailey was born in 1933 in England, and in 1940 was sent to Dayton, Ohio to stay for the duration of the war. He lived with a wealthy American family named Spaeth who also had a son named Tony. These books are an account of the years "TonyBailey" spent with "TonySpaeth", and his years back in England after the war. He went on to become a journalist and has lived in England and America, written for The New Yorker and done some travel books.

[Laura]

What a nice book! It made me nostalgic for stories of my father's childhood, and had the added bonus of being a childhood autobiography - not memoir - which was pleasant and edifying. Anthony Bailey writes well, and I will read more books by him.

[Linden]

Loved this memoir of a boy evacuated to the US during WWII.