No Time to Wave Goodbye

The World War II British government evacuated hundreds of thousands of children from London to the countryside, even to Canada and the U.S., to escape German bombs. This greatest movement of people that Britain ever experienced is recalled here by those involved, in interviews with Wicks, a Toronto journalist, who was himself a 12-year-old evacuee. Among them is actor Michael Caine, who remembers being, at age six, one of the ``filthy kids from London with funny accents.'' Others talk about deprivation and abuse, about young lives adapting to changed conditions. The author notes that an important repercussion to the evacuation was heightened political awareness of the injustices of the British class system. The voices heard here are haunting. Photos. (Sept.)