July 1940 saw 3,500 British women and children evacuated from the colony of Hong Kong, following threats of invasion from Japan. Few believed the evacuation to be necessary but the evacuees, initially billeted in Manila, soon found themselves boarding ships once again, this time bound for Australia.

One of the families separated by the evacuation was George Bearman’s whose letters capture the colour and culture of 1940s Hong Kong with its mix of Chinese customs and British tradition. They also capture the aching loneliness experienced by so many at the time, and create an intimate relationship between storyteller and reader.

This talk coincides with the publication in April 2021 of “A Weekend to Pack” by Caroline Wigley. An uplifting, funny at times, series of letters that are also deeply personal and intimate in places, bringing home the true pain of separation and loss in wartime, and told through a love story in its purest sense.

The foreword to the book has been written by Admiral Sir George Zambellas GCB DSC DL (First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff 2013 – 2016) who writes: “A Weekend to Pack is an evocative human story of a family caught up in an almost unknown dimension of the Second World War. I commend it to you.”

Caroline Wigley has been a writer and editor for over 20 years - as a journalist for the Daily Mail group, a freelance writer tackling subjects ranging from politics, to travel, to fashion, and in-house for various organisations. She has established a successful career in fiction-writing - publishing poetry and short stories, as well as having taught creative writing workshops. History remains a passion, with a degree in Politics and International Studies proving invaluable while working on A Weekend to Pack. Caroline lives in Southampton, UK.