We take summer holidays for granted but back in the 1940s, war had gripped Britain. Bombs fell, beaches were closed off, and petrol was rationed by the forbidding question, “Is your journey really necessary?”

But the summer days seemed to go on forever – and British families were determined to make the best of their paralysed country. For evacuated children, this meant freedom that is unimaginable today: discovering wildlife, foraging from orchards and hedgerows and swimming in the streams. Elsewhere, country estates were requisitioned for the war efforts.

Caroline Taggart shows us how Britons succeeded in keeping spirits up with this entertaining collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who lived through those six long years.