A01=Robin Jenkins
Author_Robin Jenkins
Category=FBC
Category=FJMS
class
community
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eq_classics
eq_fiction
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Evacuees
Evaculation
forthcoming
Historical fiction
Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics
Robin Jenkins
Second World War
War
Wartime
Product details
- ISBN 9781911748083
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 18 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Imperial War Museum
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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When the children of Gowburgh - a soot-streaked industrial town known for its razor gangs and slums - are evacuated to the quiet Scottish Borders village of Langrigg at the outbreak of the Second World War, the contrast is stark. Langrigg, with its clipped hedges and clipped vowels, prides itself on order, cleanliness and calm. But as 800 children and their mothers arrive, tensions rise, and the village must reckon with the realities of war, class and community. In the upheaval that follows, unlikely bonds are forged, and a fractured community learns to meet hardship with resilience - and a grace it never knew it had.
This reprint of Robin Jenkins's classic includes an introduction from IWM, placing the novel in its historical context and shedding light on the wartime experience of ordinary families uprooted by conflict. Jenkins's characters are not heroic, nor exceptional, but they endure. In the face of disruption and division, they find ways to come together, quietly embodying the resilience that defined a generation.
Robin Jenkins (1912-2005) was one of Scotland's most prolific and socially conscious novelists. Born near Cambuslang, he rose from modest beginnings to study literature at the University of Glasgow. A conscientious objector during the Second World War, Jenkins drew deeply on his experiences in forestry and teaching to shape his fiction. His work explores themes of morality, class and the quiet endurance of ordinary people, with The Cone Gatherers remaining a staple of Scottish literature. Awarded an OBE in 1999, Jenkins's legacy continues through the Robin Jenkins Literary Award. Jenkins died in 2005 at the age of 92. His novel The Pearl-fishers was published posthumously in 2007.
