Tenby Observer: [14th December 2012] In late 1939, just before his sixth birthday, cockney lad Eddie Stapleton was sent out of London to escape the Blitz. Initially evacuated to Seaford in Sussex, he was soon moved again, this time to Hay on Wye.
Separated from his older sisters, after a rather unhappy time, he eventually found love and security in the home of an elderly spinster he called 'Auntie Kit'.
Now he has published a book, An Evacuee in the Hay and other stories
The book, illustrated with several period photographs, is a collection of Eddie's reminiscences of his life as an evacuee.
Writing with passion, poignancy and a keen eye for detail, Eddie takes the reader into a long-gone world.
Its characters, sights and sounds and even smells are evoked in sensitive and perceptive descriptions of the author's experiences.
Above all, the book is a tribute to the remarkable lady who gave him not just lodgings, but a home.
Eddie Stapleton is a retired window-cleaner and carpet-fitter living in Tenby, with his wife Barbara.
His natural wit and gift for language are regularly displayed in his popular comic performances with Tenby Male Voice Choir, in which he sings as a tenor.