My Uncle's Dunkirk

An evocative and moving account of a young man’s experience of the events of 1940, when nearly half a million British and French soldiers were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk. Mick Manning recalls childhood seaside holidays staying with his aunt and uncle. The uncle, who served in the Royal Artillery during World War II, never speaks of his wartime experiences, but it soon becomes clear that he remembers a very different kind of beach from the scene depicted, where children are playing and paddling, and holidaymakers queue to board the pleasure steamer. In the pages that follow we see the uncle waiting for rescue in May 1940 alongside hundreds of other soldiers, not paddling but wading waist-deep to meet the boats, chilled to the bone by the seawater. Interspersed with the artwork are photos of wartime mementoes – ‘my uncle’s souvenirs’, which include a soldier’s pay book, telegrams and permits. Captions trace the sequence of events leading up to the rescue by the Little Ships, and a brief outline describes the course of the war after 1940. The contrast between the safe familiarity of a seaside holiday and the tragic events of Operation Dynamo make this a compelling account. A previous volume on World War II by this author/illustrator team, Tail End Charlie, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award.