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Author's Synopsis
Both Sides of the Pond, MyFamily’s War: 1933-1946
In 1934, Barbara Green (15) attends a British boarding school where she is bullied for being too pretty, too good at games, and too good an actress. At the urging of a teacher, she applies to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is accepted as a scholarship student. In her second year she is discovered by Fox Studios and makes her first movie with her new name: Barbara Greene. Instant stardom catapults her and her family onto a much higher social plane than her social-climbing mother could have imagined. While acting on the London stage, Barbara falls in love with Joseph Kennedy, Jr., son of the American Ambassador, and spends time with his family in London and Southern France.
Barbara’s beloved older brother Kent Green (20) works as an accountant in an airplane factory and is increasingly aware of the deteriorating situation with Germany. Barbara and her parents, Ralph and Muriel, however, are not. Kent begins a relationship with Flora, a loving woman from a lower social station.
In 1939, war cuts Barbara’s acting career and romance short. Joe returns to the United States, Kent enlists in the Royal Army Service Corps, and Barbara joins the Voluntary Aide Detachment. She serves as a nurse in two hospitals before being assigned to R.A.F. Croydon, a base that will be targeted during the Battle of Britain.
Kent is stationed in France with the British Expeditionary Forces during the Phoney War, and when Germany invades Belgium and France retreats to Dunkirk, where he is rescued. He later serves in Cornwall, Britain’s front line. The German depredations he witnessed in France, and fear of invasion, convince him Barbara must accept Ambassador Kennedy’s offer of sponsorship to the United States.
R.A.F. Croydon is bombed in one of the first raids of the war, and Barbara is injured. She recovers and during the next five months survives 78 bombing raids. Fear of imminent invasion, however, persuades her she must leave England, a rare opportunity made possible through Ambassador Kennedy’s position and kindness. After months of agonizing delay, she leaves Great Britain in January 1941 for America.
Kent, meanwhile, gains experience in command. He joins the 73rd Infantry Brigade, serves in North Africa and Italy, then joins the 1st Airborne and, later, the 6th Airborne, helping to prepare for D-Day. He is also dispatched to Burma to help correct the failures at Arnhem by learning about the work of the Chindits.
After arriving the United States, Barbara immediately visits the Kennedys in Florida then returns to New York and is hired as a John Powers Model. During a second stay with the Kennedys, Mrs. Kennedy convinces Barbara that Joe is not going to marry her, and she reluctantly ends their relationship.
In New York, Barbara decides to earn a pilot’s license in hopes of ferrying bombers to Great Britain. She meets Connor Lawrence (25), son of an old New York family, when both take courses at Roosevelt Field.
After qualifying, Barbara flies a plane around the Eastern half of the United States raising money for Bundles for Britain. Her romance with Connor develops quickly, and in late November of 1941 she accepts his proposal of marriage. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they agree to marry in January barely a year after Barbara left Great Britain.
Connor joins the Army Bomber Ferry Service flying planes to England, while Barbara models, and also acts in a play with Tallulah Bankhead. Her hasty marriage, however, is undermined by separation and her husband’s infidelity. She becomes pregnant, which ends her ambition to fly for Great Britain.
Kent falls more deeply in love with Flora, and finally introduces her to his mother. Muriel declares Flora totally unacceptable and, soon after, Flora breaks up with Kent. Towards the end of the war, the core relationships—Muriel and Ralph Green, Kent and Flora, Barbara with Joe Kennedy, and then Connor Lawrence—have disintegrated.
The war ends, but pressures and deprivation do not. Men return home, and women who worked during the war are chastised for taking men’s jobs. The transition is challenging. Kent slips into illness and alcoholism. Barbara sees that her marriage to Connor was a terrible mistake and files for divorce. Muriel braves the scorn of her religious family by leaving her husband to join Barbara in New York, which liberates them both.
Many families on both sides of the Pond endured the same pressures and the same outcomes. That is part of the strength of this story—many people will understand it, and from it learn about their own families. My family survived through luck, fortitude, and accepting change. “Both Sides of the Pond” is my celebration of their humanity and courage.
Author Evan Thomas sums up “Both Sides of the Pond, My Family’s War: 1933-1946” as follows:
Barbara Kent Lawrence has given us an intimate, harrowing, and vivid portrait of two young people engulfed by a world war. Her mother and uncle might have led decent but unremarkable lives coming of age in Great Britain in the late 1930s. Instead, they were forced to show the grit and steadfastness that gave Britain its finest hour. For anyone who wants to know what it is really like to have your world turned upside down, read this book and be shocked, thrilled and moved. From heady and improbable love affairs amidst the falling bombs to the gritty deprivations of daily life, it’s all here in a timeless well-told tale.
—Evan Thomas, author of two New York Times best-selling books, including “Road to Surrender.”
Format(s): Soft cover
Genre: Historical Fiction