大象传媒

I lived in Isleworth during the war, and travelled into London every day to work. When war broke out I was an apprentice dress maker with Marshall and Snellgrove. I helped to make debutante's dresses.

Sometimes the train lines were bombed, and you had to get on a bus, then back on to a train further up the line. John Lewis was nearby in Oxford Street. It was bombed and the building gutted. I also recall buzz bombs coming over the sewage works. When the buzzing stopped you braced yourself for the explosion.

As dressmaking was not a reserved occupation I went to work for Johnson and Mattey who were bullion merchants. My husband did not have to serve in the forces as he was class 3, exempt because he had TB as a child and was very often ill. Our first daughter was born the last day of the war.

I remember being issued with a ration book. When things came in to the shops that weren't normally on sale, like bananas, word soon spread. Everybody queued. Woe betides anyone who tried to jump the queue!

My mother-in-law had two sailors billeted with her. You had either an Anderson shelter outside or a Morrison shelter indoors. Morrison shelters were very large - big enough to take a double mattress.

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