# Can anyone identify this very dimly remembered time-travel story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986 "2008-06-23T22:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986/1 "2008-06-23T22:57:29Z")
This is a real long shot, and I’ll be amazed if the Dope can come up with an answer, but then the Dope has amazed me plenty of times before! I dimly recall reading a book when I was a kid, in probably the late 1980s. It might have been a short story in a collection rather than a standalone novel. The plot revolved around some kind of time-slip to (I think) WWII-era London, from the then-present day, say mid-1980s. I also seem to remember the Thames Barrier, which was new at the time, featuring. I think the main character was a young, maybe teenage, boy, and I’m pretty sure it was a children’s/teenagers’ book. And for some reason I remember the main character repeating like a mantra “Today is Tuesday February 12, 1986” (or whatever the “real” date was) in an attempt to somehow hang onto reality when the time-slip happened. Does this ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986/2 "2008-06-23T23:04:19Z")
Might have been Terry Pratchett’s _Johnny and the Bomb_, but I think that’s a bit newer than your timeframe. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986/3 "2008-06-23T23:39:36Z")
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Pratchett. I didn’t discover any of his stuff till quite a bit later, and it wasn’t that kind of style. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986/4 "2008-06-24T15:50:00Z")
Just a little bump for today’s crowd. ---
**Author:** ![nofloyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nofloyd/32/2870_2.png) [@nofloyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nofloyd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986/5 "2008-06-24T17:27:33Z")
Well, I’ve come across Time to go back / by Mabel Esther Allan. It’s early 70s though and the teenager is female. Description: A rebellious teen-ager goes back in time to Liverpool during World War II and views her own mother’s adolescence and her aunt’s tragic romance. ---
**Author:** ![nofloyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nofloyd/32/2870_2.png) [@nofloyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nofloyd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-very-dimly-remembered-time-travel-story/453986/6 "2008-06-24T17:31:42Z")
A popular plot. London calling / Ed Bloor. This is pretty new. Description: Seventh-grader Martin Conway believes that his life is monotonous and dull until the night the antique radio he uses as a night-light transports him to the bombing of London in 1940.