Winston Churchill had been an extremely popular Prime Minister during the war, giving rousing speeches and rallying the nation, so it might not have been that unusual even for children of Bets' age to hero-worship him. I recently read the Paradise Barn series by Victor Watson, published between 2009 and 2015 but set during the Second World War. One of the main characters, a girl who is aged about fifteen by the time the fighting ends, expresses sorrow at Churchill's government being defeated by Labour just after the war. Churchill has been a familiar and energising voice/figure during a tough period and she'll miss him, even though the general mood is one of looking forward to post-war reform under a new leader.MJE wrote: But It does seem odd, anyway, for a young girl to admire a politician. Would that have been odd even at the time the book appeared?
Turning to a book written in the middle of the war, Katharine Tozer's Mumfie Marches On, 1942 (which appears to be aimed at children under ten but has many satirical scenes that would probably be better appreciated by adults), Mumfie the toy elephant has a picture of Winston Churchill above his bed and even gets to meet him.
I sometimes think the same thing.MJE wrote: Hearing about the behaviour of some young people on-line (Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk), I wonder.... Sometimes I think it's the very opposite, that real maturity is coming later, but accompanied by a veneer of fake-sophistication.