In Case I Forget

Time is not the same at every age; now, life for me is rushing by at a hitherto undreamed-of speed. Whereas I shan't know the world of your old age, you can't know the world of my childhood, the world in which I grew up. Even to me, it seems another life. . . Early memories are like photographs in an album: fascinating to the sociologically-minded, of intense interest to members of the family and close friends, giving to those who shared them either a sentimental glow or a violent desire to contradict. Life before the Second World War now has a greater attraction for it has gone for ever. Joan Cherry's letters to her god-daughter capture the essence of the pre-war world between 1922 and 1939. Joan, known to many by her married name Joan Hart, has just celebrated her diamond wedding anniversary and chooses this moment in her life to offer a vivid insight into times past, for those too young to have witnessed them.