Back Home (novel)

Infobox Book
name = Back Home


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author = Michelle Magorian
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
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genre = Children's historical novel
publisher = Harper & Row
pub_date = 1984
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 384 pp "(first edition)"
isbn = 978-0060241032
oclc =
preceded_by =
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"Back Home" is a children's historical novel by Michelle Magorian, first published in 1984. The novel was adapted into a TV drama, "Back Home" (2001), starring Sarah Lancashire, Stephanie Cole and Jessica Fox.

Plot summary

Virginia 'Rusty' Dickinson is the main protagonist of the novel. The story centres on her return to England in 1945from Connecticut, where she was sent as a child evacuee in 1940.

Much to her disappointment, Rusty finds England hidebound, run-down, boring and totally devoid of any decent food. Her mother, Peggy, is an awkward woman who, all her life, had been dominated by her parents and her husband. During the war, Peggy came out of her shell and became a skilled car mechanic. She is stiff and hurt when the Americanised Virginia returns home.

Rusty is initially rejected by her brother, Charlie, who was born after she had been sent to America. She is baffled by the range and scale of rationing, rules she is not used to, and the people around her, and longs to return to her host family in New England. Rusty struggles to deal with her peers and teachers at boarding school, her spiteful grandmother, stiff mother, and strict father when he returns from war, but her tough spirit helps her through it and leads to her happiness in the end.

References

External links

* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0140319077 Back Home Cover]
* [http://www.goodtoread.org/books.cgi/whatsnew/back-home A review]