Smith - As Green As Grass: Growing up Before, During and after the Second World War

I would like my brother Jim to be remembered for a remark he made to me when he was an old man, the year before he died: The only thing that really counts is kindness .

In the autumn of 1957 Richard died, aged forty-three, having suffered three heart attacks in a year, the last of which killed him.

He left me two children, our son Barnaby, and our daughter, Lucy Rose.

In due course Barney, with Elizabeth, had Luke and Hugo; and Rosie, with Ben, had Joe.

My children and my grandsons have been the greatest joy of my long life.

Thank you, Richard.

Emma Smith was born Elspeth Hallsmith in 1923 in Newquay, Cornwall, where until the age of twelve, she lived with her mother and father, an elder brother and sister, and a younger brother. Her first book, Maidens Trip , was published in 1948 and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. Her second, The Far Cry , was published the following year and was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

In 1951 Emma Smith married Richard Stewart-Jones. After her husbands death in 1957 she went to live with her two young children in Wales, where she proceeded to write and have published four successful childrens books, one of which, No Way of Telling , was runner-up for the Carnegie Gold Medal. She also published a number of short stories and, in 1978, her novel The Opportunity of a Lifetime . In 2008 The Great Western Beach , her memoir of her Cornish childhood, was published to widespread critical acclaim.

Since 1980 Emma Smith has lived in the London district of Putney.

Maidens Trip

The Far Cry

The Opportunity of a Lifetime

The Great Western Beach

For children

Emily

Out of Hand

Emilys Voyage

No Way of Telling

Contents

For my beloved family, as usual, with gratitude for

kindnesses too many to mention.

Elspeth Ellie aged fifteen, 1939.

Summer picnic at Denham Bridge, River Tavy, 1937. Left to right : Sam Pyne, Daphne, Jim, Robert Langley, Mummy, Harvey, Pam, Aunt Dorothy, half of me!

The estuary at high tide during a weekend in Lewarne Hoskings holiday bungalow, Porth, Cornwall, 1938. Harvey in canoe; Pam, me and Daddy alongside.

While staying with our Granny Hallsmith in Warlington, 1939, Pam and I attended a tennis party in the garden of the next-door neighbours. Me, standing left . Back row : Bobbie Barnett, second from left, Pam and Aunt Rosemary, right . Seated centre : the neighbouring hosts and Aunt Dorothy, right .

Jim, 1939.

Pam, c .1941.

Harvey, 1939.

St Bernards Cottage. Holcombe, Devon.

Mummy (Mrs Hallsmith, ne Janet Laurie), c .1942.

Jim, left , with the crew of a Lancaster bomber in the RAF, c .1945.

Pam, in WAAF uniform (except for straw hat!) on leave, c .1943.

Harvey, with Roo, in St Bernards Cottage garden, c .1943.

Ministry of Transport publicity photograph of Trainees. Kitty Gayford, trainer, on left, 1944.

Me in St Bernards Cottage garden, on leave from the Grand Union Canal, 1943.

Harvey and me, having just won the three-legged race during Holcombe villages VE-day celebrations, 1945.

Me at my Greenpark Documentary Film Production desk in Guild House, Upper St Martins Lane, London, 1945.

Aboard the Andes , en route to India, 1946.

Filming in Assam, India.

Ralph (Bunny) Keene, in Assam.

An overnight stop in Karachi, on return from India, February, 1947.

Summer in Paris, working on The Far Cry and keeping cool by the Seine during a heatwave, 1948.

Pams wedding day in Holcombe, 1948. Me, as bridesmaid, adding the finishing touches.

Pam and David Pearce married!

A double page spread in Picture Post magazine, from a feature in April 1950. I am pictured ( main photo, right ) sailing with my publisher James MacGibbon and ( right ) setting up my new home in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk.