大象传媒

You might have seen the photograph of a little girl holding the Union Jack - a World War Two child, smiling at the camera. Well, she was my friend, Jeanie Lebby, and we used to play together, running in and out of the derelict houses in Battersea, London, and getting smacked by my mum for running off without telling her. The photo is everywhere in this anniversary year, but Jeanie died five days after the photo was taken, of meningitis. We were both tomboys, always in trouble. The shelters were dusty and crowded, they were only 8 foot by 8 foot. Life in the street was close knit; my dad was a dustman and my mum did odd jobs. I can remember him making my shoes on a last, using offcuts of leather. We used to go hoppicking with other families in the street.

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