大象传媒

I was born a few months before the war started, in May 1939, so I do not have many memories of it: going down to hide in the cupboard under the stairs during air raids, for example, which seemed very exciting to me; seeing the sky lit up over London burning (I think); and once, when my mother was taking me to the shops, stopping to talk to a neighbour who suddenly said: 鈥渓ook!鈥�, and pointed at the sky: there was a V1 rocket going past with a small plume of flame coming out of its tail.
I did, however, in my small way, make a contribution to the war effort, though I could unwittingly have been batting on the wrong side; I鈥檒l tell you about that in a moment.
We lived in Radlett, in Hertfordshire, which in those days was not a small corner of the metropolitan sprawl, but almost a village. I went to play in The Warren, where the rabbits lived, and down by the river. Not far away from our house were fields and tractors and land girls and haystacks. I used to go there with my best friend, Alan. who lived next door. Alan was a couple of years older than me and a bit of a tearaway; but as my father was away and my mother had some kind of part-time war work, I had lots of time for playing with Alan, 鈥渇ishing鈥� in the river, going to look at the remains of a shot-down German plane and getting mud all over my clothes.
Towards the end of the war, the land girls were replaced by German PoWs, who came to help with the harvest. Alan and I used to go and watch them from the edge of the field. They were not too closel;y supervised and when they were allowed a break for lunch and a cigarette, a few of them deigned to come over and chat with us. One young man, in particular, became our friend. He showed us pictures of his wife and child in Germany, and told us how unhappy he was at not being able to be with them.
One day, this prisoner (whose name I have long since forgotten) said he wanted a favour. He gave Alan a sixpence and asked him if he knew a shop in the village where he could buy some dye, because he wanted to dye his clothes. Alan took my hand and together we set out for the shop. We were just walking down the street where we both lived when we met a neighbour who asked where we were going. Alan told him 鈥� with predictable results. We were forbidden to talk to the Germans again, or go near their field. We both agreed that it was all very unfair.
Then the war ended. My father came home and got me out of bed to listen to Churchill announcing the end of the war in Europe. We watched the Victory Parade from a window in Carlton House Terrace. My father decided that I had been allowed to run wild while he was away and tried to lay down the law. I鈥檓 not sure if he ever learned about my brief collaboration with the enemy, when I was unwittingly involved in a German prisoner鈥檚 attempt to escape鈥�

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