A CATALOGUE of emotional and physical abuse suffered by the North-East's wartime evacuees has been exposed 60 years on.

Evacuees have carried their emotional scars into adult life, according to research carried out by an author.

In contrast to the picture of a nation pulling together on the home front, children as young as two suffered beatings and were effectively prisoners in people's homes.

Heather Nicholson, who was evacuated to South Moor, near Stanley, County Durham, during the Second World War, has published a book, Prisoners of War, exposing her experiences and those of other evacuees.

She claims that the woman who looked after her for five years used to beat her and her sister and lock them in the cupboard under the stairs during the five years she lived there.

Heather was just two-years-old when she and her sister, Joyce, were evacuated from Newcastle in 1940, but it was only after seeing a psychotherapist recently that she decided to research more into the traumas faced by wartime children.

She said: "This woman was virtually my mother for five years, and if you have a mother who's beating you and locking you in cupboards, it's bound to affect you."

Heather discovered that no real research had ever been done on the subject.

She said: "I was inundated and I still am.

"People are still ringing me up and telling me what happened to them, and it's incredible because many are still suffering.

"So I thought it's never been written about before and if I don't write it soon then it'll be too late.

"I had about 500 letters and I spoke to everybody. I interviewed a lot of people on the telephone, and some of it was quite traumatic because it brought my own experiences back."

She said the amount of cruelty some people suffered was staggering.

She added: "Some have asked that their names are changed because they still find it painful and are ashamed or feel dirty, which is not fair."

Prisoners of War, priced £12, can be ordered from Gordon Publishing by telephoning 0800 0851840