London 1945 - Life in the Debris of War by Maureen Waller, (John Murray, £20)

London in 1945 is associated in most people's minds with joyous crowds celebrating the official end of the war in Europe on May 8.

What are often forgotten are the first three months of that year, when the long-suffering and much-bombed capital was being subjected to constant attacks by a new horror - V2 ballistic missiles, against which there was no defence.

After nearly six years of air attacks, a million-and-one often petty official regulations, food rationing, and other privations, it was especially galling for people to have to cope with a new lethal threat on the home front, with the end of the war so clearly in sight.

Maureen Waller's well-researched and very moving book covers many other interesting aspects of life at the time, such as the effects of rationing, the evacuation of children from the capital, the housing shortage caused by the bombing, and problems caused to marriages because of long separations.

She also deals with the momentous implications of the July 1945 General Election, when the national hero Churchill was kicked out as Prime Minister and Labour's Welfare State was born.

Anthony Looch

came to power with a huge majority, and set about creating the eagerly-awaited "Welfare State".