War Brides: Reaching for New Lives

Discussion about the history of war brides, held by the Raphael Samuel History Centre and the British Library

In the years following the Second World War, 70,000 British women crossed the Atlantic to start a new life with the American GIs who had captured their hearts while they were stationed here. Their stories received widespread attention both in their home press and in America, as they struggled to adapt to relocation in fabled places that didn’t quite match up with what they’d seen at the movies.
But the GI Brides were only the tip of the iceberg. All over Europe, wartime marriages meant a post-war flux of women and their children moving from country to country. Inevitably, many marriages broke down, but others endured, as women were determined to prove to family and friends back home that the huge gamble they had taken for one man – and a ‘foreigner’ at that – was really worth it.
For this event Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, authors of the Sunday Times bestseller GI Brides, are joined by Professor Norma Clarke, daughter of a Greek war bride, Rob Stephenson, whose father was an American GI, and Dr Jo Stanley, who writes about war brides.
The talk is free to attend but places are limited. To reserve a seat please RSVP Katy Pettit: k.pettit@uel.ac.uk

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