When the War Came Home

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I am proudly Welsh, despite having moved out of Wales a long while ago, and reading this book basically just felt like going home. I love all the 'Welshism's' in the language that's used, every time someone said 'mun' I giggled to myself because my mum says it every few minutes! The book captures the essence of the valleys and their inhabitants so perfectly. Nerys, her best friend Owen and Natty soon have something much bigger and closer to their hearts (and stomachs) to contend with. Natty slowly begins to understand how her Mum sees the world – where she sees a wrong, she tries to put it right. Yiğit Akın has written a pioneering study, examining the long-neglected Ottoman home front during World War I. When the War Came Home illuminates the war's deep social and economic impact on the empire's civilian population." The winners of the Diverse Book Awards 2023 have been announced, with one winner from each of the four categories announced: Picture book, Children...

WW I has long been a topic of interest for Ottoman scholars, but the Ottoman home front has been largely ignored or, at best, unevenly treated. In this book Akın (Tulane Univ.) shows that the length and scale of the war meant that everyone in the Ottoman empire was affected....Akın's research was extensive (he even usedoften-ignored folklore), and it enabled him to provide vivid descriptions ofthose left behind struggling to meet the state's growing material demands, succumbing to starvation and banditry, and becoming increasingly alienated from the state." The humorous dialogue between Natty and her peers as they engaged in different ways to make the school listen to their demands was so fresh with feeling and honesty. And what I appreciated so much more was that with this story, there was such a beautiful balance to the other two developing relationships that were a part of Natty's new life - two broken beautiful souls that brought the war home with them and could not find a way to move on from it. Akın's When the War Came Home is an important historical revision that fully portrays the imperial home front for the first time. Moreover, this unique interdisciplinary work reconsiders existing temporal, geographical, and methodological approaches to the study of World War I in the Middle East."––Melanie S. Tanielian, Journal of Interdisciplinary History I read this book on Anzac Day after watching the film Dunkirk and so I still had the terror those young men faced in my mind. Natty was so hurt by his pain that she was so eager and determined to make him feel better, to make him fell less of the ache that was from his haunting memories. For memories are something we cannot escape no matter how hard we try; but, for Johnny, another young soldier that Natty befriends, it's all he could ever hope again. 😟😟

Set in the early 1920's, this wonderful novel explores the after effects of World War 1 on both the surviving soldiers and the families they return to. Natty lives in the small Welsh village of Libanwy with her mother, Ffion, who is a vocal supporter of women’s rights. When her outspokenness causes her to lose her job at the local factory, she and Natty are forced to move to the neighbouring village of Ynsyfach to stay with relatives. When the War Came Home' is a new middle-grade historical adventure which I'm sure will become a classic. I read the first part via NetGalley and pounced on it as soon as it was published, finishing it in one delighted sitting. When the War Came Home might be set after World War 1 - and highlight the PTSD and grief experienced by so many soldiers - but it also features a battle against something many young readers today will have more direct experience: poverty, hunger & social inequity. Parr masterfully weaves these two very different - and quite harrowing - types of struggles together in a way that's accessible to younger readers without trivializing either issue. When they are forced out of their home, young Natty has to pay the price for her mother's revolutionary spirit.She just can't understand why her mother has to get involved in problems not her own -- but in their new village, she is challenged to stand up against injustice herself.

Just as Lesley Parr's first book, 'The Valley of Lost Secrets', showed us Wales through the eyes of a WW2 evacuee, her second book is also a warm evocation of that country, with fascinating glimpses of the language and culture. When Jimmy is evacuated to a small village in Wales, it couldn’t be more different from London. Green, quiet and full of strangers, he instantly feels out of place.Close friendships were formed in war. Those friendships kept each other going but “no words are big enough. Because what do you say when someone tells you their best friend is gone?” Loss cuts deeply. Not everyone who went to war came home – some left physical bodies behind, others remained on the battlefield in their minds. After Natalie's mother, the Champion of the Underdog, stirs up trouble at her job at their hometown, she and her mother go to live with her cousins in Ynysfach. Frustrated and upset about leaving her stable life behind, Natty isn't in the mood of being agreeable. But, as she settles into her new life and meeting her cousins, she slowly discovers that when the time is right, it doesn't hurt to reach out to help others and lend a helping hand, especially when the time calls for it. Number 1: It's got some interesting topics for example the portrayal of PTSD and how it shows that it can happen, and it is serious it also shows what the characters have been through. It is also a multi-layered story, as we see through the eyes of the soldiers in the convalescent home, the effect the First World War had on so many, when they returned home. We don’t often see this period of history explored in depth within this age range – more often it is World War Two – and it is explored really well with care and sensitivity. In addition to all the above, When the War Came Home, also gives us a very realistic insight into what life was like during the 1920s in Welsh villages in South Wales. There is much to discuss in terms of family life, school, the effect of poverty and general day-to-day living. After reading Lesley’s first novel The Valley of Lost Secrets this was a highly anticipated book for me and I desperately fought the urge to read the early chapters released on Netgalley – didn’t want to spoil it for myself! Honestly, both books feel like and deserve to be future classics. Highly immersive historical novels and incredibly heart-warming they also incorporate a touch of cleverly written mystery.

In her sophomore Middle Grade book, When The War Came Home, Lesley Parr once again touches my heart with a story that is both light-hearted and still poignantly beautiful. The next time you complain about the lunch served at the cafeteria, think that there was a time and place where children had to fight for hot lunches to be served to them during school. The next time you question what was inside the mystery meat you had for lunch, remember there were young soldiers during WWI who were so cold and starving, that it wasn't the feeling of hunger that was eating away at their hearts, but the sound of 'the tap-tap-tapping of hammers on wood' that was the echo of the preparation for the 'coffins for those of us who’d need them.’ Sometimes it’s hard to put into words just how good a book is to do it justice and The Valley of Lost Secrets is one of those books. Reminiscent of Goodnight Mister Tom and Carrie’s War, it deserves to be a future classic. Reason number 2: The way it delves into the story at the beginning - there’s no long introductions, the intro is just short and snappy.When the War Came Home is a story so full of hope, determination, love, family and friendship. It utterly captivated me and had me reading into the wee small hours as I couldn’t bear to tear myself away from the idyllic Welsh countryside and the wonderfully warm, beautifully drawn cast of characters and their spirit and resilience. Atmospheric, direct and gripping, with a superbly assured narrative voice, this book is woven through with powerful themes: grief, belonging and making peace with the past. - Guardian Lesley’s Debut novel, The Valley of Lost Secrets is a gripping World War Two drama set in the South Wales valleys. The setting in When the War Came Home is again a small Welsh village in the South Wales valleys but this time set shortly after the First World War. Told in first person through the central character, Natty, makes this a really compelling read. It opens when Natty is not happy when her mam loses her job after speaking out about unfair working conditions, where she worked. With no income they have to leave their home and move to a new area to stay with Natty’s Aunty Mary and Uncle Dewi, who run a small farm in the Welsh countryside. Even worse for Natty, she has to share a room with her very chatty cousin Nerys and missing her Friday night chippy tea in the flat they used to live in above the ironmongers. She has to adjust to a new school where the teacher uses the cane and going home to the farm for lunch as there are no free school meals at this school. In this deeply-researched and engaging work Yiğit Akın takes a close look at the Ottoman home front during the First World War. Divided into six chapters, the book examines the political effects of the Balkan Wars, mobilisation in 1914 and the lives of conscripts, the war’s impact on the economy, especially on agricultural life and production, military requisitioning, the role of women and altered family structures, and, in the final chapter, the destruction of Anatolia’s Armenian population and the influx of Ottoman refugees from territories occupied by Russian forces. The study is based on sources drawn from the Ottoman Prime Ministry’s Archives, laws and regulations adopted by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress, minutes of the deliberations in the Chamber of Deputies (meclis-i mebusan) and the senate (meclis-i ayan), and a broad array of the growing list of diaries and memoirs recounting personal experiences of the First World War. In addition, and in a way no other recent study has done, When the War Came Home draws on folk songs and poems revealing the everyday hardships and tragedies faced by ordinary Ottomans in wartime.

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Associate Professor of History & Nesuhi Ertegün Chair of Modern Turkish Studies, Georgetown University The Valley of Lost Secrets, Lesley Parr's first book was a wonderful read, but this one is even better. Upper Key Stage 2 children will not only find this a gripping story, but it also raises many issues that are relevant for the here and now. Children going hungry as well as the trauma we now understand as PTSD, create a useful discussion point. This is also a book that works well with Remembrance Sunday as it in no way glorifies war, but instead looks at the damage inflicted by such wars. This book should become a classic; it would be very well deserved. She goes to rush past Huw, her whole body stiff again, but he reaches out and touches her arm. He tilts his head to show he wants her to come close to him and whispers, ‘Sorry.’ The years following World War I were those of change in Britain. We hear about the suffragettes and also lawful strikes as ways to bring about change.