REPAIR SHOP

Sub-titled 'Heartwarming Restorations That Tell the Story of World War II'. The huge popularity of the BBC's Repair Shop TV programme is not so much down to money-saving, but more the fascination of old artefacts, learning what they were used for and who used them, and finally the satisfaction of a job well done when they are returned to their gleaming pristine state. The satisfaction is all the greater when the objects are from the historic struggle of the second World War in which lives were lost in defence of our freedom. The 30 projects in this book, together with interviews with the craftspeople who do the repairs, range from a bag that belonged to Churchill's cook to a beautiful mosaic cross that its owner, a Romanian who fought with the Russians, believed saved his life by stopping a bullet. Objects from the Home Front include a secret radio from the occupied Channel Islands, built to receive forbidden news bulletins from the BBC. Possibly the weirdest of all the rescued objects is a shop mannequin ("Bert") found after the bombing of the tailoring area of London's east end. As the Blitz started, many children were evacuated to the country, and Margaret Dyson's dolly is the one memento that survived a plane crashing into their house and killing her mum. Intelligence-gathering artefacts include a spycatcher's clock and a codebreaker's writing case. Among the interviewees is leatherworker Suzie Fletcher, a pacifist who feels a personal satisfaction in the magic of healing as she restores leather wallets and cases. The "Teddy Bear Ladies", Amanda Tatchell and Julie Middleditch, specialise in all kinds of toys and take a special interest in wartime relics because both their fathers served in WWII, one in Arctic convoys and another at Arnhem. A 101-year-old Royal Navy veteran brings a cockpit clock he salvaged from an aircraft, while another frontline artefact is a Dunkirk radio in a battered case. A hat box stuffed with wartime love letters is particularly precious. 192pp, colour photos on every page showing exactly how the restoration was done.