Derek Torrington

Growing Up in Wartime Britain 1939-1945 Derek Torrington

Growing Up in Wartime Britain 1939-1945 presents the memoirs of an 8-year-old boy who, on the day war was declared, saw a German bomber fly up from the sea in Sussex, turn round and fly back again out to sea. In 1945 he watched in Albert Square, Manchester, as Winston Churchill was cheered and applauded by huge crowds on VE Day.

Between those two events we learn the remarkable story of a family that achieved great things behind the scenes to support the war effort, reaching a high level of fulfilment in the process. As well as those leading characters we hear the stories of others, such as that of the boy who was to sail to Canada on a ship carrying British evacuees but he was too late - only to hear later that the vessel was torpedeod in the North Atlantic by a German U-Boat; or of the girl whose father served in the Merchant Navy and was shipwrecked off the west coast of Africa. They received no news for 18 months.

Illustrations include a photograph of Princess and Prince Philip during their engagement.

Growing Up in Wartime Britain is an intriguing piece of social history, not previously recorded.