The Two Pound Tram

Book excerpt: The year is 1937, and Hitler has just walked into Austria. Wilfred and Duncan live in a big old house in Sussex, England; they spend their days catching butterflies, and only ever see their parents on Wednesdays for lunch. When their mother elopes and their father takes up with other ladies, they decide that enough is enough: they will leave home, go to London, and buy a tram they have seen in an advertisement. It costs two pounds sterling... The Two-Pound Tram is a classic wartime tale of adventure, and a bittersweet evocation of youth and its triumph over hardship. "Enter the dreamlike, secluded novel of two brothers growing up in Sussex, England, in the 1930s...The Two Pound Tram is a necklace of miracles, each more beautiful and unbelievable than the last."-Los Angeles Times "Newton's first novel begins life as a classic...Two boys alone in wartime England, a horse, a dog and a childhood dream-what more does one need for enchantment?...This evocative, bittersweet story of childhood is a gem for the literary treasure chest."-Dallas Morning News