大象传媒

We were on holiday in North Cornwall in September 1939. Staying with friends of the family at their boarding house in Port Isaac. I was standing in the road outside when I was told that Hitler had started a war and we would not be going home again for some time. I was very angry, 'I hate Hitler,' I said, stamping my foot on the ground. I had received a new tricycle for my birthday in July and wanted to get home to it.
We spent alternate periods in Port Isaac and Tadworth as the war ebbed and flowed but we were in the middle of the blitz by bad judgement and had to have one room in the semi-detached house 'reinforced'. The room most suitable being the kitchen - practically uinder the staircase and in the north-east corner of the house. There was a block 'blast' wall built outside and heavy wooden shutters that could be clamped inside in front of the windows.
Many nights I would be hauled out of my nice warm bed to go downstairs and sit in the bleak single light jammed together in deck chairs for comparative 'comfort'. Even with a blanket, it was often very cold, the only way to heat the kitchen was to light the grill on the gas stove.
I can remember it very clearly. The noise outside was deafening. German bombers droning overhead with a recognisable sound and the constant noise of the anti-aircraft guns and what I was told were 'pom-poms' banging and booming away. Through all this the sound of descending bombs whistling through the air gradually getting nearer and nearer.
Every morning, walking to school, I couldn't understand why we hadn't been hit. Everywhere there were smashed houses and roofs missing.

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