The Bakehouse
Joy Cowley
Gecko Press
2015

“Viewed from a distance of seventy-plus years, 1943 was history soup, everything mixed up, and it was difficult to separate reality from what he had read or been told. One event, though, was crystal clear and refused to be forgotten.”

The Bakehouse, by Joy Cowley, is the story of Bert, a now octogenarian remembering his life as an 11 year old living in Wellington during WWII, and the discovery he made in the Geronimo Bakehouse. Although as a young boy he glorified war, pretending to be a soldier and shooting the “Huns and Japs”, throughout the story he begins to see the reality of war and its effects.  Read more