This delightful story from the Second World War, told first hand by Mavis Rukin, gives a day to day reality of what it was like for ordinary folk trying to survive with little money, resources, and no knowledge of where their family was.

It tells of the hardships families suffered, their resilience, and how they just got on with it and did the best they could to live each day as it comes.

She remembers the day they moved to a house with an outside flush toilet, and the time her mother turned yellow with cordite poisoning from working in the munitions factory.

But romance was never far away, especially when the Americans arrived, and many young women sailed away as war brides.

When prompted by colleagues to answer questions on what life was like living through the war, Mavis didn't realise what extensive knowledge she had hidden away. She was 'a walking history book', and this is her story.