Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, this is the portrait of a generation of children affected by the war and its aftermath. If you are aged between 50 and 55, you probably met your father for the first time when you were at least five years old. A whole generation of people alive today - the war babies - spent their early years, in some cases as many as eight, in what were effectively one-parent families. They have vivid memories of those childhood years and the often cataclysmic effect on them and their families when their fathers finally came home from the war. This collection gives us their stories. Some joyful, some sad, they describe an extraordinary period of adjustment that took place throughout the country. As a study of social history it provides many hitherto unexplored explanations for the shift in social attitudes today, providing clues to such changes as the post-war rise in feminism and the increased number of one-parent familes.