I was a teenager during the Second World War, although the term teenager was not in use in those days. You were just a lad. What’s more, one often left school and became a worker at age 14, as I did i

By spring 1941, the Afrika Korps was advancing across eastern Libya towards Egypt and the Suez Canal. But a dusty port town lay in their path

Fitting-out time is here again. Because I winter up in the Baltic where the sea still sometimes freezes, my season doesn’t really start until May. It was different when I berthed my 22ft wooden sloop

When Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, the Army numbered just over one million men, comprising both the regular forces and the part-time Territorial Army. The National Service (Armed

YOU can’t just throw it all in a skip, Mum!” Bryony’s voice was muffled by a dust mask as she crouched in the loft space, carefully avoiding bumping her head on the beams. She examined a battered trun

In 1956, I received a party invitation from Agnes, a girl who lived two doors down from us. I was eight years of age. Our street in the city of Salford was designated a slum area, and despite a procla