A new book recounts the story of the Second World War viewed through the eyes of a child and her struggles with family trauma and illness. We have a copy of the memoir to give away in a competition.
Jean Pearson went to school in Acton, at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls. She now lives and works in Hanwell.
“I wanted to share my memoir with others,” she said, of her book Caught Between Two Wars. “It’s written with today’s generations in mind, for those with little knowledge of what life was like in wartime.”
Her story begins just before her birth, in the mid-1930s, based on stories told to her by her mother. They paint a picture of family life in pre-war Britain. A life that events were to tear apart.
Soon after her birth in 1936, a family secret was revealed which undermined her parents’ relationship; and then 4 half-siblings moved in with them.
“My first personal recollection was the declaration of war in 1939,” she told us. “Then 3 of my half-siblings were conscripted to fight and my father also volunteered.
“It led to my first experience of loss. And I struggled to make sense of death.”
A cruel change
To the backdrop of the ongoing war, her own personal dramas began to unfurl.
Jean recalled: “Starting school, although during the war years, was a happy time. And all was ‘well’, until I became ill in 1943. And then, on my 7th birthday a shocking health diagnosis was made, and the added strain on my parents led to my father rejecting me.
“Our previously happy relationship was sundered and I learned to fear him. Indeed, the next 5 years were filled with bullying and casual cruelty, and culminated with the murder of my pet dog. I vowed never to speak to him again.
“Meanwhile, everyday life was punctuated with the arrival of the ‘doodlebugs’ flying bombs and I experienced a near-fatal encounter. Just before VE Day, I remember seeing the newsreels of the liberation of Belsen concentration camp. It was a shocking revelation and my first encounter with evil.”
The photo at the top of this article is of damage to local buildings caused by a V1 doodlebug flying bomb.
Life in a post-war world
Jean’s book continues her story during peacetime, revealing the difficulties of everyday life in post-war Britain.
She said: “Peacetime is a mix of elation and depression. We were now safe but rationing continued for several years and the days of austerity, because of Britain’s war debt, were grey.”
Penicillin finally became more available in the UK, which led – at last – to effective treatment for Jean’s illness after years of poor health. The medicine had been withheld from the civilian population during the war, because of scarcity, and reserved for servicemen (classified documents released in 2025 showed this to be a deliberate government policy).
Jean also had to battle against another foe, in the form of depression, before she eventually felt like she could steer her way to building a new life.
Want to know the full story? Win a copy of the book
You will soon be able to buy a copy of the book online.
But, to stand a chance of winning a copy of Caught Between Two Wars by Jean Pearson, all you need to do is correctly answer the following question, and email it to aroundealing@ealing.gov.uk by 11.59pm on Monday 29 September 2025. You must also include your postal address, for the purposes of the book being sent to you in the event you are drawn out as the winning entry.
Question: how many half-siblings went to live with Jean after she was born?
When the deadline passes, a winner will be drawn at random from the correct entries. Please include the subject line ‘War memoir’ to make sure your entry is included in the draw.
Competition terms and conditions
Make sure you have read the details in the previous section around using the correct subject line for your email, and the inclusion of a postal address, and answering the question correctly.
After the deadline has passed (Monday 29 September 2025 at 11.59pm), the winner will be digitally selected at random, before being contacted. Only the winner will be notified. If this winner does not respond within 1 week, or a similar term deemed reasonable/appropriate to the competition prize, a new winner might be drawn at random instead and awarded the prize.
Your contact details will be used for the purpose of administering the competition and contacting the winner to notify them of the prize. And, if you are a winner, we may also need to pass them on to the organisation/company/individual that is due to provide you with the prize in order for you to claim it. Your contact details will not be retained, or used, by Around Ealing or Ealing Council for any other purposes.
The entry deadline and the random selection of the winner is final and binding in all respects on all entrants. No correspondence will be entered into.
Entries that do not comply in full with these entry terms and conditions may be disqualified. If the winning entry is disqualified for any reason, the council reserves the right to award the prize to another entrant.
There is no cash alternative to the prize. The council does not accept any liability on behalf of any third party supplying the prize. Some terms and conditions of the third party supplier may also apply to the prize.
Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions by entering this competition.
