"Each Summer during the war years, we were given a day off school to pick blackberries that were made into jam for the forces. We all enjoyed that day and a surprisingly large quantity of blackberries would be gathered from the hedges of the fields and hedgerows around the village. Today we would take plastic boxes, in which to put the berries, but at that time plastic had not been invented. So the containers used were baskets and milk cans. A large can would hold three or four pounds of blackberries."
"I soon learned to read. It was not a problem for me even though we were often left to read silently to ourselves in class. The book that I remember reading in school was Kingsley's 'Hereward The Wake' and I remember reading it one day when the boy next to me said 'The Wake is here', just as I was reading those words in the book! The 'Wake' was also the name given to the fair which visited the village each year."
"Reading has always been my delight and I must have been very young when I read my first book. I could read at an early age but it was some time before I understood that the words told a story. Mother bought the Rainbow comic for me and not only did I enjoy the pictures there. I discovered that there were stories as well and Bluebell, the girl who was really a fairy, entertained me every week. I also had Arthur Mee's 'The Children's Newspaper'. This was a very informative paper, giving news suitable for children."
"Mother was a reader and took several weekly papers with stories in them, The Sunday Companion, Horner's Stories, Sunday Stories, etc. These I read, even though they were often love stories that I could not really understand. I used to wait eagerly for the magazines to be delivered each week and would discuss with my mother what would be happening in the next issues."
"We had a lot of books in the house, most of them novels or religious books. I revelled in reading Mrs. Henry Wood's books and Silas and Joseph Hockings and several other authors, all when I was well uner ten years old. About this time Arthur Mee's 'The Children's Encyclopaedia' was published and we were given the eight volumes at Christmas. What delight and instruction I obtained from those books! I enjoyed them for years, as did my sister and brother."
