I was only eight years old when the Second World War ended, but I can still remember something about the   1  celebrations in the small town where I lived on the day when the war in Europe ended. We had not   2  much from the war where, though, like most children of my age, I often saw   3  houses in the streets and the very big   4  lorries passing through. But both at home and at school I had become   5  to the phrases “before the war” and “when the war is over”. “Before the war”, obviously,   6  had been better, though I was too young to understand why,   7  there had been no bombs then, and people had eaten things like ice cream and bananas, which I had   8  heard of. When the war was over we would go back to London, but this meant very   9  to me. I did not remember what London was like.

What I remember now   10  V-Day was the afternoon and the evening. Some boys and girls were collecting   11  and building an enormous bonfire. We stood and watched them for a time, and then I went home and   12  myself in with my key and waited for my parents to come back from work.