The British had to get used to living below the surface in the first year of war. Many householders bought Anderson shelters which could be built in the garden and meant a whole family could hide down below when the German bombers arrived overhead.

The shelters were damp and smelly and often people refused to go down when the air raid sirens started. They were at least 3 feet down in the earth and could take 6 people.

The drill when the siren went up was to get dressed and go down to the shelter. The stove would be lit and the all important kettle put on for a cup of tea or cuppa.

Annie’s Dad built a shelter in their back garden behind the shop before he went off to war and it proves to be important in One Year One Night.

There were also Morrison shelters which were designed to be used inside houses and Harriet Mandeville in OYON would have had one installed in the mansion she shared with her father.

In some cases householders sheltered under the stairs in a home and left a make-shift bed there just in case.

In cities, cellars and public shelters and the London underground were used.

When Sarah and Laura gave a talk about their first novel to a group of elderly people in a care home in Egham in southern England, one of the audience talked about spending most of the war underground in a shelter.

SL Roman is the pen-name of Sarah Onions and Laura Meloni Bywaters who both live in the borough of Kingston in SW London. Sarah was born in Brighton in southern England and Laura was born in Rome.

Now on sale everywhere: at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com in North America and – in the UK, at Amazon.co.uk and in Surbiton, SW London at The Regency bookshop.