Then the machines were on them, low-winged single engined monoplanes with curious bent wings. A burst of fire was poured into the bus...
France in the fateful summer of 1940. A retired solicitor on holiday in the Jura mountains is persuaded to escort two English children home to safety.
As the Nazi war machine thunders toward the Channel, he takes five more waifs and strays under his wing, carrying them with him on his extraordinary odyssey across a France crumbling in abject defeat...

Pan paperback 1983, ISBN 0 330 10399 7 (journal picture does not correspond)

Dt. Titel: Mr. Howard und die Kinder

Nevil Shute Norway worked as an aeronautical engineer at Vickers before setting up his own airship company. He served in both world wars and was a commander in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in World War II, working on secret projects. He flew his own aircraft to Australia to research On the Beach, before settling there permanently. His books are based on his own wartime and aircraft industry experiences. Also author of A Town Like Alice.