When the Second World War broke out, Fay Garrison with her mother and siblings moved out from her native Birmingham to a peaceful country backwater in the little Hampshire village of Redenham. Her idyllic existence was shattered by the news of her father’s capture at Dunkirk.

Later in the war she returned to Birmingham to cope with a very different school system with new friends and teachers who shaped her future life. A heroic aunt captured by the Nazis who escaped to fight with the resistance became another strong influence in her life.

Eventually qualifying as a teacher she settled down to a life in Solihull and married a journalist with whom she shared a love of music.