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4.
May
2020.
VE Day Interview Pitch: 84-year-old author's memories of VE Day in Kent
Hello,
We've been working with Lotte Moore now for 5+ years and she's an incredible inspiration to our whole team. We'd love to put her forward for your consideration in case you'd like to interview her before or during VE Day, as she recalls life during the War as an evacuee and the celebrations when the War ended at her home in Kent. Lotte now lives in London and is 84 years old. Her story is incredible... As a Kent-based publicity agency we love working with media in the South-East of England and would be grateful if you would consider our pitch. We hope you're well and doing OK during lockdown. We realise that VE Day won't be as planned but we will be celebrating with a social distancing street party in Headcorn nonetheless!
Thanks,
Helen Lewis
Director, Literally PR


VE Day Interview Pitch: 84-year-old children's author, WW2 evacuee & friend of Churchill - memories of VE Day in Kent

84-year old author Lotte Moore was just nine years old on VE Day and remembers it as clearly as if it were yesterday. Her memories of that day are of bewilderment at the adults singing, dancing and laughing, after years of hardship and solemnity. Lotte was one of the millions of children who were evacuated during World War Two and she spent two years in the countryside, away from her family and her home, with no contact with her parents whatsoever. Before the war began, Lotte and her family would regularly spend time with Winston Churchill and his wife at Chartwell. On one occasion, Lotte's younger brother got in trouble with their parents when he swam underneath Churchill, who was floating in his pool, and turned him over in the water! Lotte's mother screamed, "Don't drown the Prime Minister" and Jeremy naively replied, "who's the Prime Minister?" They were ‘just' family friend to them as children.

A picture containing indoor, computer, table, laptopDescription automatically generatedLottewrote her memories down in a book called Lotte's War (Urbane Publications), which was adapted by Nick Bromley and renamed 'A Child's War' - the play tells the story of a little girl and her childhood in Britain during World War Two. Lotte freely gives her time, when not in lockdown with her 86-year-old husband Chris in their Hammersmith home, to visit schools, read to the children, show them the rations they had to endure (including Spam and tapioca pudding) and answer their questions about WW2. She has visited more than 200 schools and once the pandemic is over, despite a broken back, plans to visit even more!

Lotte has also written many children's books as well as a novel for adults called In The Fast Lane (Hashtag Press).

Her childhood memories of barrage balloons, rationing, living in dorms with many other children, missing her family and her home, returning to West London in total darkness, living by candlelight and in fear for their lives as houses around them were bombed (the moment she realised the truth of what war really meant) and then moving to Chislehurst in Kent, where the whole village spent hours, sometimes days, in a massive cave underneath their garden which was used as an air-raid shelter.

Lotte's father, John Pudney, was a pilot and she recalls knowing the war was over when he returned home wearing his own clothes, not his uniform, and the joy she felt at that realisation. John Pudney wrote the famous wartime poem ‘For Johnny' and her grandfather, AP Herbert, MP and novelist.

After the war,their house in Kent was very busy with many visitors from Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, and Burgess & McLean, to WH Auden, HE Bates and Benjamin Britten.

Lotte is passionate about sharing her story to commemorate VE Day and keep the memories of her generation alive. She is available for interview on the telephone and via Skype, or email, and is very happy to share her stories and experiences.

Media enquiries tohelenlewis@literallypr.com/ 07904801669.