A Tale or Two to Tell

A TALE or TWO to TELL interviews with people who lived through World War II their voices, their pictures and their memories an oral history audiobook

by Samantha Elliott

a verse by John Knight

'we walk together my wife and I on the banks of the Nile where the palm trees grow and mighty pharoahs come and go we wait for a call to fly back home...'

Egypt 2011

CONTENTS ‘I have had the privilege of speaking to some special people. With kind permission of The Tamarisk Centre in Littlehampton, I’ve interviewed local residents about their lives, about growing up in the last century and their memories of a time long gone. I have heard pride, integrity, happiness and heartache but the one thing I have learned is never to ask anyone their age.

listen to these accounts and you’ll be amazed of the tales they have to tell.’

Samantha Elliott

Published and produced

by Samantha Elliott June 2011 This book is not for public use, only for prior use for an educational project. It will not be sold, lent, resold, hired out or otherwise without written permission of the publisher.

All rights reserved.

Artwork created by Samantha Elliott Printing by Real World Publishing Ltd Pictures supplied by Bernadette Elliott and John Knight

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Kathleen Peace Foxy Fox Lilly Pearson Noreen Dyer Nora White Robert Peace Gwen Carpenter John Knight Paul Barlow

Kathleen Peace

1924

'oh! I think, did you dream it? and I thought, I couldn't have imagined that

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as I'd never been there before!'

Foxy Fox

1934

'used to go to Hammersmith Palais, used to be a man about town,

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used to have a nice moustache!'

Lilly Pearson

1920

'that was all cut and gum!, well I married a very nice fellow,

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he was lovely, full of sport and nonsense!'

Noreen Dyer

1920

'you couldn't go out and buy a pair of shoes, we paid into a man, the co-op actually and when

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we had enough we had a pair of shoes!'

Nora White

1920

'she wears yellow stockings and button up boots

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and he said, you must never laugh at her!'

Gwen Carpenter

1924

'I longed to go to the fair and in those days girls, mothers of girls didn't let their daughters

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out to go roaming and have free will!'

John Knight

1920

'when the war started, Littlehampton went dead, people went away that didn't have to stay here,

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the beach was mined'

Paul Barlow

1948

'even as a teenager, we played in the air raid shelters that were severely bombed and

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dangerous, but all quite normal'

Bob Peace

'I met up with this lady, Margaret,

and I tucked her under my arm and brought her back'

A TALE or TWO to TELL This project would not have been possible without

the support of family and friends and also to the special people of The Tamarisk Centre (Age UK), Littlehampton, West Sussex