HAMPSHIRE wartime evacuee Michael Franckeiss has given a moving account of how his world was, thankfully, turned upside down during the Second World War.

He was taken from the hustle and bustle of central Portsmouth to the idyllic tranquillity of the north-western edge of the New Forest.

Michael was an average city child enjoying games of marbles, or "allys" as they were known, and scrounging fag ends from dockyard workers on a Friday in the streets of Portsmouth.

He lived in a typical "two-up, two-down" with his mother, father and older brother and sister named John and Kath.

He recounts a strange time during which air raid shelters of brick and metal were being constructed all over the city and describes the air raid siren as "the most frightening thing I have ever heard".

Shortly, the time came for Michael to abandon the city of Portsmouth as part of the mass exodus of children to the countryside.

His account dispels some views that an evacuee's lot was of cruelty and bitter unhappiness.

Michael's first train journey filled him with delight as he moved from Pompey to the village of Woodgreen, just north of Fordingbridge, in the New Forest.

The cottage he stayed in came "right off the lid of a chocolate box" and he soon made friends with neighbour Buddie Spence.

Michael and Buddie used to walk along the River Avon meadows to go to school at the neighbouring village of Breamore.

He fondly recalls how he would swap lunch-time snacks with other schoolchildren for variety and how his home-made cake meant he "held all the aces in the swapping stakes".

Eventually, the time came for Michael to move to another billet after spending many happy months in Breamore and making many new friends.

Michael said: "I will conclude by saying that if my children or grandchildren had had the same experience as I had at such an early age, they would have been better for it.

"When I visit Woodgreen, which is very often, I experience some kind of inner feeling of content."

My Country Haven, priced £5.99, is published by Devon-based Stockwell (01271 862557). ISBN 0 7223 3597-0.