A01=Jarratt Melynda
Author_Jarratt Melynda
Category=DNBM
Category=JHBK
Category=NHB
Category=NHWL
Category=NHWR7
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Product details
- ISBN 9780752443096
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jun 2007
- Publisher: The History Press Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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"We sailed for Canada in April 1945 on a Greek ship, the Nea Hellis. The crossing took three weeks all the while avoiding the torpedoes. There were over 1,000 war brides and children aboard as well as wounded soldiers going home." - Iris Rickets. 'Overpaid, over-sexed and over here' was the verdict of many British civilians of American and Canadian soldiers conscripted to Britain in the Second World War. Yet for thousands of young girls, the influx of handsome young military men meant flirting, 'walking out' - and falling in love. The result was over 48,000 hasty marriages to Canadian soldiers alone, and a mass emigration of British young women to northern America and across the globe in the 1940s. Historian Melynda Jarratt has painstakingly captured the incredible stories of young women - some say brave, some say foolish - who left their families and homes to move to a country thousands of miles away with a man they barely knew. Yet the ensuing decades brought happiness to many, and surviving women share their tales of love, family and starting again.
For some brides, the outcome was a very different story, and the darker side of the crossings reveals astonishing accounts of infidelity, domestic violence, venereal disease and even bigamy. This incredible new history draws on archives, rare documents, medical records and key first-hand accounts to tell the amazing story of the war brides in their own words - and shows the love, passion, tragedy and spirit of adventure that thousands of British women experienced in a turbulent time.
Melynda Jarratt has been researching the Canadian War Brides since 1987, when she began working on her thesis on War Brides for a Master of Arts in History at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. Melynda speaks frequently in the print, radio and television media and has written extensively on War Brides for the Internet. She lives in New Brunswick, Canada.
