To War With the Walkers: Three Soldiers, the War Bride, the Nurse and a Doctor: One Family's Extraordinary Story of Survival in the Second World War

'We were one of those lucky families. Six of us and we all survived the war. And yet one knew of other families who lost all of their children.' Ruth WalkerThis is the story of the Walkers, six siblings (including the author's grandfather) who survived Blitz, battle and internment and lived to tell the tale. This ordinary family's extraordinary experiences combine to tell a new social history of World War Two. Harold was a trainee surgeon who spent a week in a coma after St Thomas's Hospital was bombed in the Blitz, burying him under the rubble. Glamorous Bee married an American airman and was widowed just weeks before the end of the war. Peter suffered terrible torture as a Japanese POW. Edward fought with 1 Jaipur Infantry against the Germans in Italy. Ruth worked on a plastic surgery ward, helping to construct skin grafts on severely burned servicemen. And Walter fought with the 8th Gurkhas against the Japanese in Burma.Together, the stories of these ordinary yet extraordinary siblings tell the story of WW2 from the home front to Italy, Burma, Malaya and Thailand. Read more