Blitz Kids

A detailed oral history of children's lives in Second World War Britain, based on interviews with over a hundred people who lived through it

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In 1939 there were more than ten million children living in Britain. Their childhoods were about to be
shattered by events they could neither control nor comprehend.

The Second World War not only tore two million children away from their homes as evacuees, it also called on boy scouts and girl guides to risk their lives as air-raid messengers and fire watchers. It made sleeping in air raid shelters and never having enough food or clothes part of everyday life. Worse, it made hundreds of thousands of families homeless and took the lives of mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and grandparents - as well as children themselves.

But amidst the turmoil and tears, the war also brought excitement and opportunity. Cities became
playgrounds of bombed-out houses and craters, with steaming-hot shrapnel to collect. Toy soldiers could act
out the exploits of the real ones heard about on the wireless, and watching dog fights in the sky proved far
more thrilling than a trip to the pictures. By the time the conflict ended in 1945 it had shaped the psychology and life chances of an entire generation. Yet many children would look back on those six years as the best time of their lives.

Blitz Kids tells the story of the Second World War through the eyes of Britain's youngest inhabitants,
revealing how the misperceptions, imagination, creativity and courage of children shaped their view of the
conflict, and helped them get through it.