An elderly alumna visited Roedean girls’ school one Founder’s Day, to thank them for taking her in as a refugee from Nazism (as a child she arrived with pigtails in her pocket — her father cut them off, thinking she would be safer as a “boy”).
When headmaster Oliver Blond told the story to his wife, children’s author Helen Peters, the seeds of Anna at War were sown. Peters was already thinking about a setting for her next novel and now she began to research the Kindertransport — and was surprised to discover Elaine Blond, one of the key organisers, had been related to Oliver.
In all, Roedean rescued eight Jewish children; Old Roedeaneans gave them pocket money and homes for the holidays. In the book, 13-year-old Anna receives a more challenging “donation” — a baby, thrust at her by a desperate mother. Anna must feed and change him — and defend him from well-meaning adults — until they reach safety.
Anna is housed on an English farm (Peters’ childhood home) but becomes involved in a perilous wartime mission. “My dad came to the farm when he was 11,” says Peters.
