This is a particularly poignant time of year for those who lost husbands, sons or boyfriends in the Battle of Britain.

The epic struggle for supremacy in the skies, much of which was played out over the South Coast.

Any loss of life was, of course, tragic for those close to the soldier or sailor concerned, but somehow the young men who fought in the skies seemed to have a particular appeal to people's emotions.

They always appear in films as carefree, handsome young men living life to the full and taking their terrible losses in such a debonair way.

The reality was, of course, very different, as anyone who has ever encountered one of the remaining famous Few will tell you.

The television has been full of scenes from famous aerial battles and old men, once some of the most famous names of the war, have been sharing their memories with us.

But it was not only those who went to war who had to face difficult and hard times. There were civilians, the nurses, the Home Guard and those who worked all the hours you can imagine to make the weapons of war which kept our forces going.

I was reminded of this by a reader who kindly sent me a wonderful piece of writing called We Are Survivors.

It is sub-titled "For those who were born before 1940" and it sums up a way of life which is only a distant memory these days.

It lists many things which we now regard as essentials which had not even been thought of then - television, penicillin, frozen foods (was there really a time when you could not have instant peas in winter?) even ball-point pens.

It talks about attitudes to life so different from those we now take for granted. "Fast food" was what you ate in Lent, a "Big Mac" was an oversized raincoat and "crumpet" was what we had for tea on Sundays.

I wish I had room to quote more of it, but the final paragraph goes like this: "We, who were born before 1940, must be a hardy bunch when you think of the way in which the world has changed and the adjustments we have had to make. No wonder we are so confused and there is a generation gap today - BUT by the grace of God, we have survived - HALLELUJAH!"

I don't know who wrote it, but I hope whoever did will forgive me for quoting from it and if any reader knows where it originated I would love to know.

My postbag also yielded another interesting piece of information about a subject very dear to my heart - Muzak in shops and other public places - something I have written about before in this column.

It appears that there is an organisation called Pipedown, which is the International Campaign for Freedom from Piped Music, and it seems to have had some spectacular successes in getting piped music stopped in a number of public places.

Gatwick Airport has dropped piped music and Sainsbury's and Tesco have agreed not to install it and there is a guide to Muzak-free pubs. If you join (£12 pa in Britain, £16 overseas), you get an excellent information pack, newsletters and stickers. The address is Pipedown, PO Box 1722, Salisbury SP4 7US, fax/phone 08971 518976 or, for the computer literate, log on to pipedown@btinternet.com