大象传媒

was born in July 1935. In April 1941 we were bombed, whilst living in a council house on St. Helier Estate, Surrey. I had measles so my mother, 13 year-old sister and I were spending the night in the coal-cupboard under the stairs, rather than risking taking me out to the corrugated iron Anderson shelter half-sunk into the earth of the back garden. Four bombs fell (one killing the milking goat which was kept next door - people went to amazing lengths to supplement the rations). My fathr was 42 then (ex-Royal Marine WW1) and was away on a contract i Bedford - he worked on jointing high-tension cables all over the country, sometimes at secret locations, during the war. So there were just the three of us there when the bombs fell and my mother threw herself across us.
I remember waking to see sky and stars above me. Eventually an ARP warden cleared a way to get us out through the front passage.

Now here is what a five-year-old girl was thinking in such circumstances :

I was being carried in the warden's arms across the rubble and thinking how grateful I was to be wearing

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