Rae’s Story

This is Rae’s story, one of four true stories from the book GI Brides.

‘Hey, baby, how about you and me get out of here?’ the GI asked Rae. But even if he had been Clark Gable, she wouldn’t have given him a second look. He was a Yank, and therefore not to be trusted.

After being bombed out of her home in North London, tomboy Rae joins the ATS and is sent to work welding tanks near Nottingham. Despite her dislike of ‘Yanks’, a GI called Raymond wears down her resistance and she agrees to marry him. After the war, she reluctantly follows him to rural Pennsylvania, where she soon discovers his dark secret.

Rae’s story is extracted from GI Brides, written by the bestselling authors of The Sugar Girls. It tells the true stories of four of the 70,000 British women who crossed the Atlantic for love after the Second World War.

Reviews

‘Apart from the strength of the individual stories, one of the richest things about this book is the detail: the atmosphere on the rackety old ships which took the war brides across the Atlantic; the hideous, humiliating medical inspections they had to endure before being deemed fit to enter the USA; the dreadful anxiety of waiting for men who had promised to meet them on arrival, but didn’t show up…’ Bel Mooney, Daily Mail

About the author

Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi are the bestselling authors of The Sugar Girls, which chronicled the stories of young women working in Tate and Lyle’s factory in the East End of London.

Duncan studied English at Cambridge and is a writer and editor, specialising in biography and memoir. As a journalist, Nuala Calvi has written for The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Express, the BBC, CNN and numerous Time Out guides.