I remember it all. I was 7 when the war started, 13 when it ended; & perfectly conscious of what was going on. Coming from a large family [my mother was one of eight children, my father one of five] I had countless relations in the armed services. I was in London throughout the Blitz of 1940 & the flying bombs and rockets of 1944. I missed weeks of education when my school was destroyed by a 1940 landmine & the King & Queen came to inspect the damage. There was an unmistakeable spirit of public dedication and universal determination to resist invasion.

Just as well for me, at that: having been born to a Jewish family, I would never have become a senior schoolmaster, theatre critic, folk music journo, award-winning amateur actor, &c&c&c if invasion had occurred...

I would have become a bar of soap