This was perhaps the most turbulent decade for our iconic capital. It started in fear of what was to come and ended with a sense of huge disappointment that so much sacrifice appeared to have achieved so little.
Sandwiched in between live theatre was played out by a cast of millions. Death and danger brought out the best and the very worst of human behaviour. Bravery and cowardice were daily bedfellows, as was greed and a sense of duty that would seem alien to us today. Life was a rollercoaster ride.
It was a time of massive class divide, yet one where the population joined as one in their distrust of foreigners. This feeling was overcome by some with the arrival of US forces, but was reinforced years later with an influx of West Indian immigrants.
Hutton sets out to let the reader really know what it was like living in those heady times by providing as a backdrop stories and memories of those who grew up in wartime London and the bleak years that followed.
