The mystery on the mantelpiece

The article on the battle against U-boats in the Second World War in the November issue omitted perhaps the most important episode. That was the part played by the late Joe Baker-Cresswell of Bamburgh

Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers

MILLICENT BRADFORD dithered about going down to Portsmouth on the train. It was cold, that January of 1942, and obviously there was a war on. Travelling about was frowned upon, unless one really had t

“You can’t live here. There are no shops,” my friend Jen stated. We were sitting in the van belonging to the pub I lived in, the Golden Cross, Slough, waiting for my parents who had an interview for t

These days, we associate autograph books with celebrities. But they originated in 16th-century Germany, where university students used to collect signatures from their classmates, and functioned as an

When World War Two broke out, conscription came into force for all males aged between 18 and 41. From December 1941, 17 million women aged 19-30 were also conscripted into the forces or for war work.