大象传媒

During the war, we kept rabbits, chickens, pigs - as most other people did. We used to go round the neighbourhood with a "Dandy" ... vegetable and kitchen waste ... which was used to feed the animals.

Nothing was wasted.

We'd make pig swill ... and then we'd share the meat around ... the blacksmith was the licenced slaughterer in the area ... he didn't get paid in cash, just in legs of meat! There's many a time when I was stirring boiling buckets of blood to make black puddings.

I bred rabbits ... in a chicken coup ... basically as pets, but as rationing took place they became food. One day I was approached by a chap who wanted to know what was going on with the rabbits. He wanted as many as he could get. It turned out the chap was from the Midland Hotel in Derby ... and my rabbits were served up as chicken at the hotel ... I got half-a-crown per rabbit ... which was a lot of money in those days.

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