大象传媒

I was only 5 years old when war broke out, but I remember going to school in Blackburn, to St Michael and All Angels. The school was next to Hornby's Mill, and in 1943 and 44 the mill was full of American soldiers - so in order to prevent "unwanted attention" from any enemy, we had armed guards in our school yard as we played.

They were all American GIs, and I remember their guns - and the sweets, gum and oranges they used to give out to us children. Some of the GIs were coloured, which was quite unusual at the time - for some of us, it was the first time we had seen a black person.

I also remember the abuse my father endured for having a "reserved occupation". He was a bobbin maker, and although it wasn't his fault that he couldn't go off to war this didn't stop some locals giving him flak. Women who had husbands and sons away at the front, and later some of the men who had returned from fighting, all had plenty to say to him.

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