A Wartime Childhood — Joan Chandler

This book is both a record of living through a war and a coming-of-age story. The world into which Joan Chandler was born disappeared after 1939; instead of spending leisure time on horseback, of which she had dreamed, she learned which food queues to join, which shrapnel pieces to snatch for her collection, and to dress in second-hand garments because clothing coupons were insufficient for a growing adolescent.