Young Patsy had just turned five years old when, from her garden in the North London suburb of Enfield, she saw a Spitfire pilot practicing vertical spins in the sky. It was September 1939, Great Britain had an Empire that spanned the globe, it cost one-and ninepence to go to the cinema, Greta Garbo was a star of the silver screen and the Second World War had just broken out…

Patricia Bending shows us 1940s London through the eyes of a child and, as we follow her through the decade, the history of the period reveals itself in words via diary entries, snippets of overheard adult conversation, the BBC News, hearsay from kids on the street and in pictures with personal and archive photographs, news-clippings and a variety of memorabilia, which combine to paint a vivid picture of an England that is, from a modern perspective, “a foreign country”.

Readers old enough to remember the period will enjoy taking a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane, whilst younger readers who want to understand what life during World War II and its aftermath was really like for the ordinary citizens of Great Britain, will find that this charming memoir portrays this momentous era in British history in an amusing, poignant and readable manner.