Lincolnshire author Gerda Bean reflects on her memories of WWII in her touching middle-grade novel

A story about friendship and how it can see you through difficult times, Gerda Bean wrote Best Friends are the Best by drawing inspiration from her own experience of the Second World War from Germany. After her father left for war against the Russians, Gerda's mother took her to her grandmother in Thuringia, central Germany. It was here that she met her best friend, which inspired her to write this story.

"Of all the places where I’ve lived and worked," Gerda says, "some of my fondest memories are of my best friend – whom I call Gabi in my story – and of the time we spent in the small town in Thuringia. And this is why I based my story on my time with her."

Revealing the war from the other side in a way that will engage and interest children, Gerda shows daily life from the perspective of German children during the war, broaching the dissatisfaction of locals with the war and the suffering of the people in a way that children now can digest and sympathise with.

Gerda Bean was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, and worked for Herder Publishers in Freiburg. She has lived in Boston and Washington, DC., and became a freelance translator in 1975. She has been nominated three times for the German Youth Literature Prize and lives with her husband David in Torksey, Lincolnshire.

Gerda explains: “I have an American niece, and when she was eight she asked me about what I experienced during and after the war. I wrote her a number of episodes, which served as the germ of the present book. She took it to school, and she told me afterwards: “My teacher read it aloud in class and cried twice.” That was my motivation and inspiration.”

About Best Friends are the Best:

It is the year 1944, and six-year-old Marie lives with her mother, father and brother in Baden-Baden, a spa town in the German Black Forest. Her home town has not been bombed and her father, an orchestra musician, has not yet left to fight in the war as German musicians were told to stay at home to keep up the people’s spirits.

But tragedy strikes in late 1944 as Marie’s father is sent to fight the Russians, and she is forced to move in with her grandmother, a pub owner in Eastern Germany. Marie becomes best friends with the girl next door and it is through their friendship that Marie is able to get through scary and uncertain times.

Together with her friends, Marie learns just how valuable true friendship is.

Best Friends are the Best is publishing on 28 January 2024 and is available from all good book retailers (online and on the high street), and directly from the publishers Troubador Publishing.