Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
The Lost Orphans and The Lifeboat Orphans in The Runaway Evacuees series by Ellie Curzon, the pen name for Catherine Curzon and Helen Barrell, are two books that have touching, heart-warming, and heartbreaking moments, with a tinge of humor. The setting of London during the Nazi blitz of WWII shows how Londoners faced fear, survival, loss, and horror, but also were courageous, kind, brave, and strong. Both books are historical fiction based on the true story of the Blitz kids.
The lost orphans, known as Connie, Jack, Elsie, Ned, Ben, and Susan, were sent to the countryside to be safe, but instead were beaten, starved and used as slave laborers. They escaped and fled back to London’s East End, sleeping where they could. The children banded together to not only survive but to help others by putting out fires, helping those buried under debris, and warning of unexploded bombs.
Readers meet two adults, Lisette Souchon and Adam Wyngate, who become surrogate parents to the orphans after they helped rescue eight-year-old Elsie. This make-shift family stays together to make sure each survive.
The story began with The Lost Orphans and ends for now with The Lifeboat Orphans. The story flows from one book to the other. In the first book the narrators are Elsie and Lissette, while the second book is narrated by Connie and Lissette.
After an argument between Connie and Ned, he runs away and while rescuing someone has a wall fall on him, causing injuries. If he can make it to America Ned’s injuries might be helped by a specialist doctor. Connie, Ned, and Mr. Wyngate travel by ship to get to America that must navigate away from the German U-boats’ torpedoes.
With both books readers will experience, along with the characters, the intensity of the situation, the devastations, and the loss of life. People will worry for the children, while also cheering for them. These stories are gripping, riveting, and hard to put down.
Elise Cooper: The idea for the series?
H & C: Our previous series, The Codebreaker Girls, had Mr. Wyngate as a character. We loved him and wanted to get into his backstory. We wrote an entire novel about him, since he has been in each of our WWII novels as a returning character. He is essentially like a secret agent. We adapted the solo book about him, and it morphed into these stories with The Lost Orphans.
EC: Were these books based on anything real?
HB: My gram was an evacuee and did come home because she had an awful time. She was pinched and the family she was staying with in the countryside kept most of her rations. Her mom said, ‘come on home.’ She was a little girl traveling alone on the trains. We wanted to write about what war does to children.
CC: One of my interests is WWII history. The Lost Orphans was based on a real group of children who were called The Dead-End Kids. They were children who were evacuated and came back. They were befriended by a nineteen-year-old who led the group. They put out fires and rescued people from bomb blasts. Some were killed doing it. They became the spirit of the city. Their story had been forgotten. Their story is stranger than fiction. It seems far-fetched but is true.
EC: How would you describe Mr. Wyngate?
CC: He is based on the real stories of those in the SOE and intelligence services who did dangerous work. He is entirely fictional. He has very clipped language and never uses any spare words. Everything is snappy. I absolutely love writing him. Wyngate is direct, caring, brave, mysterious, proud, resilient, and has resolve. He is also the hero to one of the orphans, Elsie. He is her superhero. Based on Wyngate’s own past he knows what it is like to be a child that nobody wants. He wants to make a massive impact on these orphans’ lives.
HB: We have a joke that Ian Fleming knew him and based James Bond on him. Elsie has nobody except her brother Jack. He is like a hero to her who has walked out of the cinema screen. For him, Elsie represents his little sister. They have invincible links. Elsie feels that he understands her.
EC: How did you divide the stories of the orphans between the two books?
H & C: The first book was more Elsie’s story, while the second book was more Connie’s story. The first book was from Elsie’s and Lisette’s point of view, while the second book was from Connie’s and Lisette’s point of view. Connie is older and had a very hard life. In the first book, The Lost Orphans, they struggled to get out of dangerous situations and did not know what their life held, while in the second book, The Lifeboat Orphans, they are settled in a little home, have a profile, and have adults helping them. Connie daydreams that she and Ned were brother and sister.
EC: How would you describe Lissette?
HB: We each write different characters. Catherine wrote Mr. Wyngate and I wrote Lissette. She is French and a nightclub singer in Soho. We wanted to explore how Soho was a bit Bohemian. She makes Mr. Wyngate able to let his guard down with her. She and Mr. Wyngate became unofficial foster parents to the orphans. They stepped up to the plate.
CC: All these characters have no one. Lissette has her mom back in France, Wyngate is completely on his own, and the orphans lost everything. At first, they had no one and now they all have each other.
EC: What about the relationship between Jack/Connie and Lisette/Wyngate?
H & C: People think Wyngate is a bit of James Bond, with a girl in every port. But his lifestyle has it not happening. Both he and Lisette have emotional bruises along the way. Jack and Connie still have that youthful innocence with a belief in romance. This leads to a funny moment where Lisette and Wyngate realize they need to talk to the children about the birds and the bees. Connie and Jack had to grow up very fast. They acted as parents to the younger children. Both couples start as friends. We wanted to write the relationships with parallel lines.
EC: In the first book Elsie had become mute while in the second book Ned lost his hearing. Please explain.
HB: We like to explore different disabilities. I started going deaf when I was thirty and wanted to explore it with the orphan, Ned. Regarding Elsie, my brother who has different learning disabilities became mute.
EC: What do you want to say about the nuns and countryside farmer cruelty?
H & C: On a plotting level they were the springboard that pushed the story into action. My gram told us stories of being an evacuee. She was pinched and was left to go hungry. Some of the things did happen where the nuns did beat the orphan children with their rosaries. It was hard to write about it. I did not understand how they did not have compassion for the children left in their care. In this series the antagonist is the war. We wanted to show why the children were running away and from whom. At the same time there were good people as well like the Jewish Soup Kitchen that fed the orphans. We wanted to showcase the blitz spirit where most of the Londoners came together.
EC: What is the role of the blitz?
HB: We wanted to show readers a little of what the British went through by the Nazis. It brought Lisette, Wyngate, and the orphans together, and to show the abuses. Anyone writing about WWII cannot avoid writing about the blitz. When I wrote about sheltering in the station, a lot of it was remembering what my grandma used to tell me. Every morning, they would come out wondering if their house was still standing. That is why we wrote the scene where Elsie and Jack and the others came back to their house and found nothing there.
EC: Was the journalist Esther based on truth?
CC: She is not based on anyone real, but there were women who were war correspondent trailblazers. Like Esther’s reporting, the real orphans were reported on in the press. They became for a little while celebrities. They had their moment in the sun. They were constantly helping. A good story did help with wartime morale. It was quite an important weapon in the homefront arsenal, the morale of the British people. As reported, we wanted to show the bravery, tragedy, and selflessness. Here were these children who put themselves in danger to do something.
EC: Why the celebrities?
CC: The music was important. I love vintage music. Noel Coward and Vera Lynn are real. She is legendary and when someone brings up ‘wartime music’ in England people would say Vera Lynn. There are certain types of music that Englanders of any age would realize it came from WWII. For me, there are certain types of music that transport me. I vicariously lived Coward and Lynn coming to a benefit in England and Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in America.
EC: Is Pippa the dog based on any dog?
CC: Pippa is my dog. We started writing the series just after she died. Nothing has hit me as hard as her death. I felt like I lost a part of myself. Helen suggested to name the dog in the series after my Pippa. She is grey and peachy. I love having her in the book because that makes her immortal. She is Elsie’s dog and helps the children with their adventures.
EC: Next book?
H & C: It is a new book in the same genre with some returning characters, set in France. It is a story of remarkable women who pushed back against the Germans. Imagine a French village on the Normandy coast. The characters have bravery, friendship, and personal sacrifice. It will be out fall of 2026.
EC: THANK YOU!!
