My first year in London was when the great fog came, which of course, helped to bring in the clean air. It really was horrible. You couldn't see much in front of you. I put a clean slip on the morning of the fog and when I took it off that evening, it was black.

This happened over three days. It started on the Friday. One of my fellow students lived locally but she had a room in college and decided she would try and get back for lectures on the Monday. And she walked. She described it as being really frightening. Because she knew which road she's got to cross, but she didn't know whether there was traffic on it because you couldn't even see the car lights. And it smelled awful.

I collapsed. I went out to the loo in evening of the first day and passed out in the corridor, so they fetched matron from the sick bay, which was in another building. She put me to bed and said I think I'll leave you here overnight. I'll come in in the morning. When she came in, in the morning you could hardly see across the room, it was so thick in doors too. We were actually breathing it in the whole time and we lived outside London.