"This Time Next Week" is based on the memories of Barbara J Kelland of her time at the Royal Masonic School for Girls from 1936-47. These memories were enhanced by the letters she wrote home during this time and which had been kept by her mother throughout her life.
Barbara has also included social history as it affected her family, such as the developments of the newly built suburbs of London in the 1930s, her mother’s application for her to enter the Royal Masonic School and life in wartime Britain.
Having also been a pupil at the school from 1938 to 1945 her description of her first day at the school instantly transported me back to a September day in 1938, when I too sat in the Common Room and was introduced to my “House mother” the Dawn mentioned in the book.
The years Barbara spent at the Royal Masonic School (RMS) have been graphically described, and will revive many happy memories for those of us who were pupils at the school at the time. The book will provide an interesting insight into life at the RMS in the very different world of seventy years ago, for those who spent their wartime childhood elsewhere as well as for those for whom World War II is just a distant historical fact.
Barbara recalls with gratitude the help and encouragement given to the pupils by dedicated members of staff at a time when there were so many difficulties to be overcome.
A former pupil of the RMSG and reader from Sussex
