We take summer holidays for granted but back in the 1940s, war had gripped Britain. Bombs fell, beaches were closed off, and petrol was rationed by the forbidding question, 'Is your journey really necessary?' But the summer days seemed to go on forever – and British families were determined to make the best of their paralysed country. For evacuated children, this meant freedom that is unimaginable today: discovering wildlife, foraging from orchards and hedgerows and swimming in the streams. Elsewhere, country estates were requisitioned for the war efforts. Caroline Taggart shows us how Britons succeeded in keeping spirits up with this entertaining collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who lived through those six long years.
No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents. Your children away from home; your husband, father and brothers off fighting. How in the world does one celebrate Christmas? That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six years during the Second World War. From the family whose dog ate the Christmas roast, leaving them to enjoy 'Spam with all the trimmings', to the exhibition of hand-made toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, these first-hand stories are by turns tragic, poignant and funny. Between them, they paint a picture of a world that was in many ways kinder and less self-centred than ours. Even if – or perhaps because – there was a war on.