During the war we were evacuated down to Hempstead. There was my mum and four children. The people we went to could choose who they wanted and they chose my mum and my sister, separating them from us. We werent’ allowed to talk, we weren’t allowed to communicate. So me dad brought us back. He said “No, we cant have that”

So then of course we were in the thick of it in the war. We went to school, but I don’t remember being in a school, all I remember is being in air raid shelters. One time we lived in it for six weeks. My dad grew tomatoes on top. There was a single bed in there and I don’t know how we slept. We used to go to the shops and if the sirens went off we used to have ladies saying come in her love, it’s well sheltered. I mean we weren’t frightened.

We’d watch the aeroplanes come over. They’d make a circle and then another plane would come and drop a bomb in. One time they dropped a mine and it caught on a tree branch.