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My father was an air- raid warden during the war and was out patrolling a nearby sports field one day when something very odd caught his attention. It turned out to be a parachute and he decided he wanted to get a souvenir. He managed to cut off some of the parachute rope and brought it home to show us.

About two hours later we had a call from a policeman telling us that we had to pack up and get out because an unexploded landmine had been dropped by a parachute nearby- Daddy turned green. He was lucky that you need to be very close to the mine in order actually to detonate it.

My mother did not believe my father when he came to tell her about the landmine. She thought that he was playing a joke on her until our next-door neighbour arrived round with her coat on and a big bundle under her arm, asking why we were not yet packing.

We spent the day at our next-door neighbour's mothers until the landmine was defused.

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