About the Author
Born in Liverpool, England in 1933 into a family of 7, Ray Evans was evacuated to the South Wales town of Llanelli
at the outbreak of World War Two. He remained there until the cessation of hostilities in 1945. When he and his family
were returned to Liverpool to re-build there family and their lives.
 Despite his initial dislike of being in South Wales and Llanelli, he had come to love it dearly once he finally found
his way to his beloved Welsh Family the Williams'. He had grown to love the beautiful Welsh countryside, and learned
firsthand of the love and genuine warmth of the Welsh people. When he first arrived in Wales he had been teased at
school for his Liverpool accent. So it seemed very strange to him that when he finally returned to Liverpool, the
kids there teased him because he had now developed a decided "Welsh Lilt"! Now feeling like a duck out of water again
but yearning for the gently rolling hills and green valleys of South Wales, Ray vowed he would move out of the city
as soon as he possibly could.
When he left school he worked first at the State Restaurant in Liverpool as a cooks apprentice and then for Hanson's
Dairy as a delivery man before going into the Army to complete his two years National Service as a member of the Royal
Army Medical Corps.
He returned to Liverpool and in 1956 married his wife Lilian and shortly thereafter moved out of the city limits to the
small village of Whiston. Lilian and Ray had a son in 1957 and a daughter in 1960.
In 1964 Ray started a wholesale clothing business and he and Lilian ran this enterprise together highly successfully
until 1995, when they moved to New Hampshire, USA where their daughter, her American husband their granddaughter
[the inspiration for his writing the book] lived and owned a small business. Shortly after moving there Ray began
writing the book at the suggestion of his daughter and with the encouragement of Lilian to help ensure the stories
would be passed on to all of their grandchildren and generations to come. It's interesting to note that during the
years spent in New Hampshire Ray & Lilian took a short trip to meet up with Ieuan and his wife when they came
over to visit their daughter who was working for a travel company in Vermont. Ieuan was still his "Welsh Brawd", and
they reveled as they had when they were young boys in swapping stories and telling jokes. Ieuan and Ray were enjoying a
beer together at the bar in the hotel, when they shared their remarkable story with a visibly stunned bar tender.
In 2001 the family moved once more and settled in the gentle rolling hills and green fields near Williamsburg,
Virginia, which with all it's history and connections to England feels just like home, where Ray finally finished
writing his book.
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To Contact Us:
E-mail: info@beforethelastallclear.com
Web: http://beforethelastallclear.com
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The story of one young boy from Liverpool whose family was sent to the Welsh town of
Llanelli for the duration of World War II. Separated from his mother and brothers and sisters, six year-old
Raymond Evans is shunted from pillar to post. At first he has a miserable time, unwanted and largely unloved,
and it appears that his war will be spent without any family—real or surrogate.
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