About the contributor

I am interested in the Second World War because both my parents lived through it and have told me a great deal about it. They were married during the war, in 1941, but delayed having a family until after the war was over. I was the first of their three children and I was born in 1949, when there was still some rationing in force. My father did not serve in the armed forces because he was in a reserved occupation, an industrial chemist. One of my articles goes into more detail about this.