Safe Harbour
| By: | Marita Conlon-McKenna |
| Publisher: | O'Brien Press Ltd |
| Published: | August 2012 |
| Pages: | 176 |
| Categories: | Children |
| Language: | English |
| Available as: | Ebook |
| On sale at: |
Sophie and Hugh are left homeless when their house is bombed during the London Blitz. Their mother is seriously injured and their Dad is away fighting, so the children are sent to their grandfather in Ireland. Sophie and Hugh are left homeless when their house is bombed during the London Blitz. Their mother is seriously injured and their Dad is away fighting, so the children are sent to their grandfather in Ireland. Sophie is scared - they have never met grandfather but his letters cause such trouble in the house, and their Dad never speaks of him. How will they live in a strange country, with a man who probably hates them - and will the family ever be together again? Born in Dublin in 1956 and brought up in Goatstown, Marita went to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mount Anville, later working in the family business, the bank, and a travel agency. She has four children with her husband James, and they live in the Stillorgan area of Dublin. Marita was always fascinated by the Famine period in Irish history and read everything available on the subject. When she heard a radio report of an unmarked children's grave from the Famine period being found under a hawthorn tree, she decided to write her first book, Under the Hawthorn Tree. Published in May 1990, the book was an immediate success and become a classic. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, including Arabic, Bahasa, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Italian, Japanese and Irish. The book has been read on RTE Radio and is very popular in schools, both with teachers and pupils. It has been made a supplementary curriculum reader in many schools and is also used by schools in Northern Ireland for EMU (Education through Mutual Understanding) projects. It was also filmed by Young Irish Film Makers, in association with RTE and Channel 4. This is available as a DVD.
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