Compelling and moving real-life accounts of the impact on family life of the return of the troops at the end of the Second World War.
Summer 1945. Britain was in jubilant mood. At last, the war was over. Soon the men would be coming home. Then everything would be fine: life would get back to normal.
Or would it? Six long years of war had profoundly changed family life. For years, Dad had been a khaki figure in a photograph on the wall, a crumpled letter from overseas, an occasional visitor on weekend leave. Now he was here to stay, a stranger in a group that had learned to live without him - and was not always prepared to have him back.
Most homecomings were joyful, never-to-be-forgotten moments of humour and hope. Others were hard. And there was no one to deal with the tears and the trauma.
It would take hope and courage for families to live and love together again.
Barry Turneris a writer and historian. His latest books areBeacon for Changeabout the 1951 Festival of Britain andOutpost of Occupationon the German occupation of the Channel Islands. He has just completed his seventeenth year as editor ofStatesmans Yearbook. He lives in London and south-west France.
Tony Rennellwas a senior editorial executive on theSunday Timesand theMail on Sundaybefore switching to writing 15 years ago. He is the author and co-author of seven books, of whichWhen Daddy Came Homewas the first. He writes regularly on a variety of subjects for theDaily Mail. He lives in Suffolk. He was born in 1947, the son of a father who came home but never spoke about his war. When I told him I was writing this book, he was silent. After he died, I was told that he had read it and, most unusually for him, wept. But, to me, typically, he said not a word.
