New Book by AuthorBarbara Kent Lawrence, Ed.D.
In January of 1939 when Barbara Greene, a beautiful young British actress, met Joe Kennedy, Jr., son of the American Ambassador, she could not have expected that their relationship would lead to her emigrating to the United States and learning to pilot a plane. Neither could her brother, Kent, have foreseen his bitter retreat from Dunkirk when he left England in January 1940 to fight in France, or his subsequent service on the frontlines in Cornwall, North Africa, Sicily, and Burma.
In this intensively researched war story of the author’s family, we also hear the stories of other ordinary people who survived extraordinary circumstances. Richly illustrated with photographs and documents, Both Sides of the Pond, My Family’s War: 1933 – 1946 is a captivating book.
Photo by Kayte Churchill, Ledgehill Photography
People are sometimes instructed to write from pain and passion, and I would add: immerse yourself in something you want to learn about. My books reflect all three motivations.
Barbara Kent Lawrence
What other Authors say:
Praise for Both Sides of the Pond, My Family’s War: 1933 – 1946
What a wonderful book! The description of the humiliating retreat through Dunkirk is the best I have ever read. Lawrence has gone to great lengths to ensure that her facts and dates are correct and explain the background to events. A worthwhile read, on either side of The Pond.
—Roy V. Martin, Master Mariner and author of Ebb and Flow: evacuations and landings by merchant ships in World War Two, Suffolk Golding Mission: A Considerable Service, and other books.
Barbara Lawrence has given us an intimate, harrowing, and vivid portrait of two young people engulfed by a world war. Her mother and uncle might have led decent but unremarkable lives coming of age in Great Britain in the late 1930s. Instead, they were forced to show the grit and steadfastness that gave Britain its finest hour. For anyone who wants to know what it is really like to have your world turned upside down, read this book and be shocked, thrilled and moved. From heady and improbable love affairs amidst the falling bombs to the gritty deprivations of daily life, it’s all here in a timeless well-told tale.
—Evan Thomas, author of two New York Times best-selling books, including Road to Surrender.
This is a first-rate account of the build-up to World War II, a most descriptive account of the attack on Croydon, and generally of the Blitz, that also includes a delightful passage on Warwick Castle. The characters come to life in this book that has a warm feel to it even amid the chaos of war. An excellent piece of writing!
—Brian Ingpen is the author of twelve books on maritime history, including Mailships of the Union Castle Line.
I loved this book and couldn’t put it down. History and the complexity of human relationships unfold with uncommon grace.
—Barbara Lazear Ascher, winner, most recently, of Pushcart’s Editors Award for Ghosting: A Widow’s Voyage Out.
Thinking of World War II as “a good war” risks neglecting the realities of broken, or partly broken, lives. The war experienced by young actress Barbara Greene and her brother, Kent, revealed in this deeply researched and impressive family history will draw you in and keep you engaged.
—Robert Malcolmson, Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University Ontario and author and co-editor of many books and articles, including The Diaries of Nella Last: Writing in War and Peace.
An intimate and beautifully researched story of one young British woman’s life as she finds love and a career on the stage and screen. When World War II destroys those dreams, she and her brother are called upon to serve their country in different but equally perilous ways. The author views historic events through this very personal lens in a way that brings Barbara’s and Kent’s compelling stories vividly to life for the reader.
—Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop, author of Daughter of Spies: Wartime Secrets, Family Lies.
With a poet’s incisive eye, Lawrence conveys the cost of war, whether to men in the field, women in the air, refugee children at sea, and even mules parachuted into Burma. Her meticulous work tells the story of war’s weight on families and brings to light immense courage in the face of great risk.
—Sharon Cregier, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor (Ret.) at University of Prince Edward Island, historian of animal transport, and author of books and articles, including Noncommercial Horse Transport: The Need for Standards.
I was immersed and riveted by this, a moving and beautiful narrative. A gifted young sister and brother navigate the darkness of World War II, both together and alone. Their indomitable spirit and resilience could serve as a beacon in our own darkening time.
—William Carpenter, author of The Wooden Nickel and the award-winning military novel Silence.
There must be rooms full of books concerning the Kennedy family and libraries full of books about the Second World War. Despite this, the author offers new perspectives on both subjects. She tells the extraordinary story of her mother’s exploits and she sheds light on her uncle’s war service in a field that is seldom recognised or recorded. The author is to be congratulated on illuminating the activities of her family during their wartime lives, which helps to throw new light on the desperate times they lived through and the challenges that so many people faced.
—George Vaughan Colonel (Ret.), Late Royal Army Service Corps and Royal Corps of Transport.
For anyone doubting that fact and fiction can combine creatively, this book is a must-read. Lawrence has caringly pieced together her mother’s and uncle’s lives and contacts as they are drawn into one of the past century’s most violent episodes. Her work deftly weaves together extremes like hope and fear, amity and enmity, safety and peril. Concerns like careers and celebrity come and go as we test the bonds of kinship and marriage while feeling wartime’s horrors, hardships, and unknowns. Will people ever stop sending others into combat, or suffering what comes back?
—Parker Shipton, Ph.D., is a professor of anthropology at Boston University and author of many books, including The Nature of Entrustment, published by Yale University, which received the Melville J. Herskovits Award of the African Studies Association.
Haunted by a 1939 photograph, Lawrence assembles an exquisitely researched and intimate history of her mother’s and uncle’s vigorous lives, from the lead-up to World War II to its eventual end. In her skilled telling, we feel the terrible impact of rising fascism, making it a clear and bold read for today.
—Gretchen Cherington, award-winning author of the memoirs Poetic License and The Butcher, the Embezzler and the Fall Guy— A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry.
