Evacuees and Crabapple Trees

Sheila Newberry

TRAVEL back in time and enjoy fascinating tales of wartime, the eternal bonds of love, and the beautiful English countryside with a much-loved saga author who knew a thing or two about the ups and downs of family life.

Sheila Newberry (pictured below), the Suffolk-born writer who died aged 88 in 2020, was a mother of nine children, with twenty-two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, and her passing left a legacy of over twenty enchanting novels which have won the hearts of readers across the decades.

Newberry spent her whole life writing – she wrote her first ‘book’ before she was ten – but it was not until she was in her eighties that she became one of the country’s best-loved saga authors with books such as Bicycles and Blackberries and The Winter Baby garnering thousands of fans. Evacuees and Crabapple Trees is a heartwarming collection of her memoirs, offering an irresistible and nostalgic glimpse into her long and busy life – including photographs of her family – and with a delightful foreword by fellow saga writer Rosie Goodwin.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, seven-year-old Sheila and her family left Surrey to take refuge in Suffolk. For Sheila, country life was strange at first, but roaming the fields and picking wild flowers was what childhood dreams were made of.

When the bombing died down, the family moved back to Surrey, but Sheila had taken rural living to her heart and would later return to the countryside when she, her husband John and their large brood arrived at Crabapple Cottage, their new home in Kent. 

The momentous arrival at their smallholding was a scene described with relish in her memoir and one that Newberry held forever in her memory. ‘One last cough from the overheated engine of the Morris 8 and the bulging doors appeared to burst at the seams, with children tumbling eagerly out and dispersing in all directions – rushing past the shabby old weather boarded cottage into the tangled orchard and, with joyous whoops, discovering the gnarled plum trees groaning under the weight of huge, glistening purple-red Victorias.’

It was to be the first of many adventures over the years as the children – who were always her inspiration – adapted to the seasonal rhythms of country life and Newberry continued to write stories... stories full of rich period detail and the author’s natural empathy and insight which are loved by readers to this day. 

Evacuees and Crabapple Trees is a delightful journey into the past, offering a moving and uplifting snapshot of both times gone by and a remarkable writer’s life, from her years as a young evacuee to falling in love and raising her children. A nostalgic feast for all saga fans!
(Zaffre, paperback, £9.99)