'Read all about it...read all about it...war declared'-'Evacuate children immediately.' Newsboys shouted, loudspeakers blared, children disappeared from the streets as Operation Pied Piper commenced. On September 3 1939, Neville Chamberlain announced, 'This country is at war with Germany.' A year later more than five thousand bombs were dropped on Birmingham streets in 77 air-raids in the blitz of WW2. Churchill said, 'We will fight on the streets, we will not surrender.' The city in flames, the sky glowing red, is deeply etched into my memory. Bombs, sirens and shelters were part of daily life. Blitzed City recounts childhood memories of those years. Of smouldering ruins, barbed wire and bombsites, of hard times in a wartime home with evacuation, austerity and rationing. Shopping and hours of queuing dictated a way of life that is difficult to imagine today. Money was short and Britain was in debt. But one day there was the sound of shouting and laughter; my parents were dancing around the room, 'The war's over.' They were wild with excitement. The end of the war brought better times. The writer trained as a nurse and recalls the new Welfare State, the NHS, the first antibiotics and amazing advances in medicine and health care. The 'Fabulous Fifties' arrived and with it cars, package holidays, washing machines, fridges, television- and war-children became the first 'Teenagers'.