![]() ![]() He is so malnourished he can't keep a proper meal down, he wets the bed, he can't read or write, and he shivers and trembles a lot. Willie is obviously used to being beaten - he is covered in bruises and bleeding sores. There is an old Bible and a leather belt to beat him with. It all becomes a bit clearer when Tom unpacks the brown paper carrier bag that Willie has brought with him from his unforgiving London home. He was quite unprepared for this timid, sickly little specimen. 'Ungrateful' and 'wild' were the adjectives he had heard used or just plain 'homesick'. What does Mister Tom make of Willie? The tales he had heard of evacuees didn't seem to fit Willie. Willie is dumped on grumpy old Tom Oakley, the sharp-tongued widower, but he soon finds that Mister Tom is fair and friendly. ![]() Not everybody had a good time as an evacuee during the Second World War, but for eight-year-old Willie Beech, suddenly transferred from a deprived London background into the heart of the country, it is literally a lifeline. ![]()
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