I Go by Sea, I Go by Land

This novel, published in 1941, is set in England and the United States during the Second World War. It takes the form of a diary of Sabrina, the 11-year-old daughter of an English airman, who, with her younger brother, is evacuated from the family home in Sussex to stay with her aunt in New England. On hearing that their small village had been bombed, their aunt Harriet had sent a telegram: “Send children at once. Would be so delighted. Sure it is wisest.”

The author, P.L. Travers (née Lyndon Goff, born 9 August 1899), spent her early childhood in Queensland. On the death of her father in 1907, the family moved to Bowral, New South Wales. She was educated at a boarding school in Sydney. She began writing poetry and her first poems were published while she was a teenager. After leaving school, she worked for a time as an actor and dancer. She moved to England in 1924. In 1933, she began to write the book that was to make her famous — Mary Poppins. It was published the following year and she went on to write numerous books about the character.She also wrote several other novels, further poetry, a play and a few works of non-fiction.

Sabrina, the central character, describes her leave-taking from her father very much from her father's perspective:
“He took James and me and held us tightly to his sides. I could feel the bones in his leg and the bones in his arm. He looked at us for a long time as though he were remembering every bit of our faces... He said ‘Sabrina and James, there are two things that are more important than any others — Love and Courage. Will you remember?’ He said if we kept that in our minds our going to America would be easy. He said that it would be a weight off his mind to have us there while he was fighting. And that he would take care of Mother for us and as soon as the war was over we would be all together again.”