Now closed: Win one of 10 copies of Voices from the Second World War

My Mum was a secretary for Lloyds of London shipping. She was evacuated from the offices in London, to Pinewood Film Studios for the duration of WW2.
She said it was really nice there and she met lots of film stars from that time. She had long blonde hair and rather fancied she looked like Veronica Lake!

I was born in 1939 in haslemere in surrey my mother would cycle to Hindhead common ,sometimes with me in the kiddie seat on the back and our dog nipper in the basket on the front ,when we got there nipper and I were allowed to run about while my Mum got fires / beacons ready to light at night to try to fool the german pilots there was an airstrip there and discharge their bombs away from the real air strips and cities ,later I was evacuated with my mother to the new forrest which I realy liked

My Grandad was a draughtsman, so he was not actively fighting in WW2 in the war, he used to go and help set up the munitions factory's. He did not speak about it much as he had to sign the official secrets act, Nan said women used to get very angry with her because her husband was not actively fighting and she had her husband at home. but both my Grandparents lost siblings fighting in the war, so they did not come out completely unscathed.

I lived in London throughout the blitz, I was not evacuated. Spent a great deal of time on my own, as many friends were evacuated, Had very little schooling, a kind lady teacher opened up her front room to any children not evacuated, and taught very basic reading writing and arithmetic. We had an Anderson shelter in the back garden, and were bombed out, re-housed in a requisitioned house which had ELECTRICITY, HOT AND COLD RUNNING WATER ON TAP AND A BATHROOM! We were in heaven.
Played for hours with friends, (when they returned from being evacuated) in bombed out derelict buildings, made ourselves camps on bomb sites and returned home safely. War was all we knew at that time.

My Nana had 7 sons my dear dad being No.4 he and his 3 elder brothers all joined different Services during The 2nd World War upsetting we know but she sttod and waved them off proudly and got on with opening up her spare bedrooms (she ran a boarding house as she was a young widow) to anyone who had been bombed out of their homes,until they could find alternative housing she turned over her garden to grow veg and kept a few chickens for eggs and food.
My dad's 2nd brother was badly injured and hidden in a French farmhouse for 5mths and everyone thought he had died Nana even had a telegram he did return home but sadly died just before I was born from his injuries hence me being named the female version of his name.

My father in law was only ten when the war ended, but has vivid memories of assisting his dad on 'fire watch' and remembers going looking for unexploded bombs (!!!) after bombing had taken place. If there was bombing in Manchester my mother used to go dancing or out with friends after work and then tell her parents she had been delayed by the bombing raids.

One of the ladies I know worked for the SOE from a very young age as her dad had been with the diplomatic service and she was brought up to be bilingual. She was recruited when she was only seventeen and her parents were told that she was going to work in London for Special Branch; they never knew until after the war that she had been working undercover as a spy. Another lady worked as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park - and again, her parents knew nothing about her work until after she had got married and left.

My Granny's WI collected money to equip a caravan as a mobile canteen. On the night of the Clydebank blitz she drove it across the country through the night to get to the people there to offer as much help (and cups of tea) as possible. She was a nervous driver and the roads across Scotland were not good at that time. We are very proud of her.