Saplings (1945) opens in the summer of 1939 in Eastbourne where the Wiltshire family is on holiday, the children playing on the beach in front of the grand hotels which line the front. This is the Cavendish Hotel on the Grand Parade (1870s) as it was before WWII bomb damage to one side which was then rebuilt in a different style (it is still there). In a way, it reflects the theme of novel which considers 'the disintegration and devastation which war brought to tens of thousands of families' like the Wiltshires. Eastbourne is also, of course, where Tirzah Garwood grew up and later met Eric Ravilious.