Valerie Braunston, class of 1952 (1945 joiner), wrote a wonderful recollection of her time during the Second War World. Valerie sadly passed away in October 2023 but her son Miles discovered her memoir, London Can Take It, when clearing her house. 

Born in Edmonton, Valerie moved to Bush Hill Park just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Her family hoped the war would pass them in this quiet neighbourhood but, as the Blitz began, her carefree childhood became a daily fight for survival. Valerie endured air raids, rationing and a fractured education while London was battered for eight relentless months. She spent over five years in London during the war and was finally evacuated in 1944 to a pig farm in Lincolnshire for a few months before returning home in time for VE Day.

Valerie attended Latymer between 1945 and 1950. During her time here, she loved joining in drama activities and we found her mentioned in this 1950 article on The Blue Bird production:
These accounts speak for themselves. Suffice it to say that the spirit was here truly shown. One could pick out individuals for separate praise, such as Raftery, who as Bread, played the part excellently, amusing everyone by his antics, Light (Eileen Atkins), Fire (Jacqueline Lawson), Sugar (Margaret Lane), Milk (Audrey Keeffe), Water (Alma Bradford), Night (Edna Miller), Old Father Time (D. Saville), the Grandma, Grandpa and parents of the children (Shirley Strachan and F. Moore), the Fairy Berylune and neighbour (Valerie Braunston), and the neighbour's little girl (Valerie Orr) who finally found the joy of the Blue Bird, all fitted their parts realistically into one whole and gave very pleasing performances. 

During the 1990s, Valerie spent a decade on the after-dinner speaker circuit and was regularly booked for events such as Women's Institute lunches, her most popular talk being that of her wartime experiences. She also had short stories and articles published about her evacuation in titles such as Country Living, Family Circle and the People's Friend.

Later in life, she took a correspondence course in writing and subsequently had her first book, The Rocky Road to La-La Land, published in 2014 as Valerie Bingham (her married name) about her husband and his decline due to Alzheimer's disease. Her manuscript for London Can Take It was first developed as a series of short stories that she later expanded into a full manuscript, which was never submitted for publication before her own health deteriorated. Her memoir sat undiscovered for several years until she went into care at 88 and her house was cleared. 

London Can Take It captures Valerie's memories of war time, infused with her humour and resilience. Valerie's poignant story of life on the Home Front during World War II remains one of the last voices of that generation, revealing the enduring strength of the human spirit during one of history's darkest times.

Doreen Ashleigh, class of 1948 (1941 joiner), read the book avidly and explains "The book is such a good reflection of how people lived in North London during WWII. Valerie was very gifted in describing everything – I could actually picture exactly which roads and houses she was talking about in her book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it!" 

In her memoir, Valerie wrote about VE Day "That evening I couldn't get my parents attention and actually took myself off to bed, even though they said I could stay up all night. I was happy and exhausted all at the same time. I'd heard so many conversations centred on the word "tomorrow" that all the possibilities began chasing each other around in my head. I decided the sooner I got to sleep, the sooner tomorrow would come." 

Whilst we sadly couldn't celebrate Valerie's achievement in her lifetime, we will raise an honorary glass to her at our July reunion and keep her written words in mind at the next Remembrance assembly.

May yesterday never be forgotten and tomorrow always be brighter and more hopeful.