Written in 1944, when John Beale was 15 years old, The First Official Story of Life at High Beeches is a teenage boy's autobiographical account of life as a World War Two evacuee at a large country mansion in Haywards Heath, Sussex, England. Here, John Beale tells of the adventures he and his evacuee friends had in the vast grounds and pleasure gardens of High Beeches which at the time was owned by Colonel Giles Loder. The house at High Beeches house was destroyed by fire when a damaged Halifax bomber crashed into it in 1943 when returning from Germany. The pleasure gardens remain open to the public today.