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Welcome to a special episode, in which I seek out east London’s vanishing wartime voices.

From my experience cockneys aren’t a dying breed, they are alive and flourishing, part of the cockney diaspora of Essex, Suffolk, Kent and even as far afield as Australia.

What is in danger of disappearing are the vanishing voices of wartime East London. Go to East London today and you will hear a myriad of accents, transformed as it is by immigration and gentrification.

What you will struggle to hear are the voices that were heard in the shelters, pubs, markets and factories of wartime London. Even less likely, the beautiful lyrical songs, like the one which starts this special episode by east ender Dot Smee who sung in the shelters during the Blitz to drown out the sound of the bombs. Or poetry written and recited by Whitechapel seamstress, Sally Flood to express her frustration at the monotony of wartime work.

This episode features three enterprising east enders who, like Dot, didn’t just survive during the Second World War, but thrive. Their unique and beautiful voices, songs, poems and memories offer a fascinating glimpse into the kind of people wartime east Londoners are and the war that shaped them.

For more true stories from East London, why not check out my only non-fiction book on the wartime matriarchy, The Stepney Doorstep Society.

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