大象传媒

I was eight at the outbreak of war. My father was just out of the Navy but, of course, he was recalled. I don`t remember seeing him for five years but I do have a memory of his cold weather clothes: very thick and smelling of something that I imagine was lanolin. He was in the North Atlantic and went to Iceland.
My Grandad was an ARP warden. Of course we had no sirens; he used to have to walk up and down the village blowing his whistle if a raid was imminent. We did have one bomb; it fell, jettisoned, I suppose, up on the down. To us it was the blitz! Otherwise, I suppose, we just sat the war out.
We all had gas masks; my little brother had a special one, a sort of box which he was put into.
Martin was a very closed community. We lived mostly off rabbits, hares, partridges, pheasants and the vegetables we grew in our garden. We had our own chickens and a pig. My mother said that children didn`t need tea so she used to barter our tea coupons for cheese and other 鈥渆xtras鈥�. I can`t imagine how she coped.

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