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War Babies: The Untold Stories of The Silent Generation
A collection of interviews with men and women from the Silent Generation – those born between 1928 and 1945 – about their childhood experiences during World War Two
“Those men and women who donned uniforms to ‘do their bit’ were not the only ones affected by a conflict that turned the world upside down. Many millions of children also lived through the war.”
Each November we remember the sacrifice and courage of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought in two world wars. Sadly, as each year passes, only a handful of veterans survive to tell their stories, and those of their comrades who paid the ultimate price.
But there’s another group of women and men, themselves now elderly, who also survived a war. They may not have borne arms, or worn a uniform, but they too faced war’s horrors – as children - and they bear its scars. They may not be war veterans but they are war’s victims and survivors.
Author Chris Manby and social historian Simon Robinson finally give a voice to those children, and tell some of the very few untold stories of World War Two. Tales of hardship, danger, brutality and terror.
“Alongside their parents and grandparents, they too faced the blitzes, lived on rations and were, in many terrible cases, imprisoned, subjected to torture and used as slave labour. Though the children of World War Two were too young to serve they were not too young to suffer.”
Moving, compelling, tragic and uplifting, it is also a story of our times as the authors say...
“A new generation of children is spending nights in bomb shelters, becoming refugees and losing their loved ones. Perhaps listening to the voices of those who were children during World War Two, and examining how their lives developed in the decades that followed, can help us to better understand how to support this new band of war babies in the years to come. It’s time for the Silent Generation’s stories to be heard.”
“Those men and women who donned uniforms to ‘do their bit’ were not the only ones affected by a conflict that turned the world upside down. Many millions of children also lived through the war.”
Each November we remember the sacrifice and courage of the soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought in two world wars. Sadly, as each year passes, only a handful of veterans survive to tell their stories, and those of their comrades who paid the ultimate price.
But there’s another group of women and men, themselves now elderly, who also survived a war. They may not have borne arms, or worn a uniform, but they too faced war’s horrors – as children - and they bear its scars. They may not be war veterans but they are war’s victims and survivors.
Author Chris Manby and social historian Simon Robinson finally give a voice to those children, and tell some of the very few untold stories of World War Two. Tales of hardship, danger, brutality and terror.
“Alongside their parents and grandparents, they too faced the blitzes, lived on rations and were, in many terrible cases, imprisoned, subjected to torture and used as slave labour. Though the children of World War Two were too young to serve they were not too young to suffer.”
Moving, compelling, tragic and uplifting, it is also a story of our times as the authors say...
“A new generation of children is spending nights in bomb shelters, becoming refugees and losing their loved ones. Perhaps listening to the voices of those who were children during World War Two, and examining how their lives developed in the decades that followed, can help us to better understand how to support this new band of war babies in the years to come. It’s time for the Silent Generation’s stories to be heard.”
265 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 6, 2025
About the author
Chris Manby
41 books121 followersThis author has also released books under the name Chrissie Manby.
Encouraged my by English teacher, Mrs. Pocock, I published my first short story in Just Seventeen when I was fourteen years old. The story was called ‘Whatever happened to the wonderful boy I fell in love with’ and I published it under the pseudonym ‘Carolyn Lane’ because it largely consisted of a transcript of an argument I’d had with my boyfriend. I bought a black denim jacket from C & A with the proceeds.
I continued to contribute short stories to Just Seventeen to help pay my way through university. I studied Experimental Psychology at St Edmund Hall in Oxford. Alas, I devoted rather too much time to my social life and staggered away with an unimpressive 2:2. In retrospect, that 2:2 saved my life. It meant that none of the graduate training schemes I had hoped to join would have me. I wouldn’t become an accountant after all. I moved to London and took a series of temp jobs to support myself. It was while I was working at Prelude Audio Books, a company which took erotic ‘classics’ and put them on tape, that I met my first real novelist: David Garnett.
David is a very well respected science fiction writer, who once dabbled with writing erotica under the name Angelique. Prelude was recording the Angelique novels. One afternoon, David spent a couple of hours sitting on my desk, waiting for my boss to come back from a very long publishing lunch to discuss some unpaid royalties. I told David I’d always wanted to be a writer. He dared me to write a novella like Angelique’s. A few weeks later, I handed him my first full-length manuscript. David cast his experienced eye over my scribblings, helped me tweak it and then passed it on to his editor at Little Brown. Incredibly, she made an offer on it. My dream of becoming a proper writer was reborn.
That first book was called ‘Inspiration’. It centred on the sexual shenanigans of a group of artists in St Ives. Wary of embarrassing my parents, I published ‘Inspiration’ as Stephanie Ash. Four more Stephanie Ash novellas followed, helping me to pay my rent and attract the attention of a literary agent. In 1997, I published my first Chris Manby novel, ‘Flatmates’…
Thirteen novels on the single life as Chris Manby later, I’ve just published ‘Getting Over Mr. Right’ as ‘Chrissie Manby’ (apparently too many people are under the impression that I am a bloke!).
I live in London and when I’m not writing (in fact, even when I’m supposed to be writing) I spend an awful lot of time on Twitter. Follow me on @chrissiemanby.
Encouraged my by English teacher, Mrs. Pocock, I published my first short story in Just Seventeen when I was fourteen years old. The story was called ‘Whatever happened to the wonderful boy I fell in love with’ and I published it under the pseudonym ‘Carolyn Lane’ because it largely consisted of a transcript of an argument I’d had with my boyfriend. I bought a black denim jacket from C & A with the proceeds.
I continued to contribute short stories to Just Seventeen to help pay my way through university. I studied Experimental Psychology at St Edmund Hall in Oxford. Alas, I devoted rather too much time to my social life and staggered away with an unimpressive 2:2. In retrospect, that 2:2 saved my life. It meant that none of the graduate training schemes I had hoped to join would have me. I wouldn’t become an accountant after all. I moved to London and took a series of temp jobs to support myself. It was while I was working at Prelude Audio Books, a company which took erotic ‘classics’ and put them on tape, that I met my first real novelist: David Garnett.
David is a very well respected science fiction writer, who once dabbled with writing erotica under the name Angelique. Prelude was recording the Angelique novels. One afternoon, David spent a couple of hours sitting on my desk, waiting for my boss to come back from a very long publishing lunch to discuss some unpaid royalties. I told David I’d always wanted to be a writer. He dared me to write a novella like Angelique’s. A few weeks later, I handed him my first full-length manuscript. David cast his experienced eye over my scribblings, helped me tweak it and then passed it on to his editor at Little Brown. Incredibly, she made an offer on it. My dream of becoming a proper writer was reborn.
That first book was called ‘Inspiration’. It centred on the sexual shenanigans of a group of artists in St Ives. Wary of embarrassing my parents, I published ‘Inspiration’ as Stephanie Ash. Four more Stephanie Ash novellas followed, helping me to pay my rent and attract the attention of a literary agent. In 1997, I published my first Chris Manby novel, ‘Flatmates’…
Thirteen novels on the single life as Chris Manby later, I’ve just published ‘Getting Over Mr. Right’ as ‘Chrissie Manby’ (apparently too many people are under the impression that I am a bloke!).
I live in London and when I’m not writing (in fact, even when I’m supposed to be writing) I spend an awful lot of time on Twitter. Follow me on @chrissiemanby.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 27, 2025
I’ve read a great deal about the Second World War, but very little that focuses so specifically on the experiences of children. This book taught me some things I didn’t already know, and I recommend for those who want to learn more.
The book is clearly structured and centres on first-hand accounts from people who were children during the war and are now in their eighties and nineties; the so-called silent generation. Their individual stories cover a wide range of experiences: evacuees, children who stayed in London during the Blitz, those sent overseas through evacuation schemes, children interned in Changi Prison in Singapore with expatriate parents, children of unmarried mothers, and mixed-race children.
I would recommend this book to readers who want to understand more about what British children lived through during the war and how those early experiences have shaped them throughout their lives. I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and this is my honest review.
The book is clearly structured and centres on first-hand accounts from people who were children during the war and are now in their eighties and nineties; the so-called silent generation. Their individual stories cover a wide range of experiences: evacuees, children who stayed in London during the Blitz, those sent overseas through evacuation schemes, children interned in Changi Prison in Singapore with expatriate parents, children of unmarried mothers, and mixed-race children.
I would recommend this book to readers who want to understand more about what British children lived through during the war and how those early experiences have shaped them throughout their lives. I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and this is my honest review.
December 13, 2025
What are the psychological effects of war on children? This book explores the effects of the Second World War on children who are now in their 80s and 90s. They experienced nightly bombings, air raids, evacuation from their families and, even after the conflict was over, the effects the war had had on parents, their marriage and their well being. Its a timely and thoughtful book, split into sections with an introduction and then the memories of a particular individual.
I was completely fascinated and could not put the book down. These are real people, still able to recall the events they lived through 80 years ago. And of course at the time no-one made allowance for how it would affect women and children; they barely thought about the trauma and psychological damage on the men who were fighting. Brilliant.
Thank you to NetGalley and Mirror Books for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was completely fascinated and could not put the book down. These are real people, still able to recall the events they lived through 80 years ago. And of course at the time no-one made allowance for how it would affect women and children; they barely thought about the trauma and psychological damage on the men who were fighting. Brilliant.
Thank you to NetGalley and Mirror Books for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 19, 2025
I would give this book a million stars. I learned so much about the British Children … war babies … of WWII. War Babies should be a must read for every one of every nation. We need to constantly remember what a narcissist like Hitler did to the entire world. We today need to be very vigilant that this doesn’t happen again…..
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews