About the contributor

We had a large garden which my parents cultivated as a nursery garden. Among the benefits this offered was extra petrol for the car. We always had a sack of potatoes in the boot to prove our journey was necessary. But another more lasting benefit was that Mother was allowed to have POWs from the nearby camp at Hanworth to work in the garden. They were very kind, joining the family for meals, working hard in the garden and making toys for us children and a beautiful expanding workbox for my mother out of wood they collected around their camp. I can see the toys now - a mickey mouse which walked down a slope, chickens which pecked at seed on a tray and a clown which turned somersaults at the top of two sticks. The families exchanged Christmas cards for many years after the war finished and I think it taught us children a very good lesson about 'the enemy'.