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Continuing where I left off yesterday with my description and review of London’s Imperial War Museum’s new exhibition, Once Upon a Wartime, the fourth section of the exhibition is dedicated to Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword, the story, based on true events, of a small band of Polish children who travel from Warsaw to Switzerland in search of their family, having been separated from them earlier in the Second World War.

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Above is a section of the cabinet including some of Serraillier’s original notes and then for comparison, an excerpt from the final manuscript for The Silver Sword.

This is the silver sword – actually an envelope opener sent to Serraillier by his brother, but which provided such inspiration for the novel.

Illustrated route taken by children in The Silver Sword

A beautiful space in the exhibition is an illustrated map of the route taken by the children on their way to Poland. I felt this helped give a sense of scale to their journey and made me think about what astonishing things people can achieve, and about what conditions bring out hidden strengths and perseverance in us.

The map included several video screens with questions posed to us the visitors, asking about the choices we might have made at various junctures along the way. Whilst the idea for this was great, it didn’t quite come off, in my opinion. The questions posed were too simple and the answers lacked contextualization. Perhaps the questions and answers were written to engage younger children, but they could have included a little more information so that adults could also enjoy this section.

The fifth and final book presented in the exhibition is Little Soldier by Bernard Ashley. This book was new to me and tells the story of a boy soldier from east Africa who is “rescued” (my quotes, not Ashley’s) and taken to the UK. He finds it hard to settle and continues to find conflict everywhere in his life, now with gangs on the streets of London.

Storyboard for Little Soldier

Whilst I thought it was an excellent choice to include this book, a book not about either of the world wars, a book set in contemporary rather than historical Britain, a book about what real fighting and face to face conflict can mean to a chil

The Hen and the Carp by Ian Serraillier (1912-1994) Once, in a roostery there lived a speckled, and when- ever she laid an egg this hen ecstatically cried: 'O progeny miraculous, particular spectaculous, what a wonderful hen am I!' Down in a pond nearby perchance a fat and broody carp was basking, but her ears where sharp -- she heard Dame Cackle cary: 'O progeny miraculous, particular