I Go By Sea, I Go By Land

 

I Go By Sea, I Go By Land is a funny little curiosity of a book. PL Travers is best known for writing the Mary Poppins books, which I loved as a kid but sadly didn't stand up so well to being revisited. Originally published in 1941, and reissued in this edition in 1966, it's an account of a pair of children who are evacuated to America in the early days of World War II, focusing mostly on their voyage across the Atlantic and then settling in with their foster family, who are family friends. They are nice middle class children and they are accompanied by another nice middle class family friend called 'Pel.' One can only assume, since it's stated that the book is based on a real experience, that the beloved, sympathetic, imaginative, utterly delightful Pel is based on P.L. herself! (Though Pel has a baby, which P.L. herself never did.)

For the most part, I Go By Sea is fascinating, packed with details about wartime travel and attitudes. However, I could have done without the casual anti-Semitism of the ship being packed with 'large-nosed' 'foreign men' who are 'only Tourists.' Eleven year old Sabrina, who recounts the story, and her younger brother James befriend some 'lower-decks' children along the way, which reminded me a little of Nikki Greenberg's A Detective's Guide to Ocean Travel, which is set about fifteen years earlier.

In parts I Go By Sea is quite moving, especially when the children receive some bad news at the end of the book, and it's here that the book's purpose as wartime propaganda is mostly clearly evident. The children are frequently reminded to display 'Love and Courage' even in their comfortable exile, and one can only wonder how much more those qualities would have been needed back at home. It's unusual to read an account like this written in the thick of events, rather than with the benefit of hindsight; Sabrina, James and Pel had no idea how their story was going to end.