" Robert saw no graces in this post-war London. It seemed to him that there were no amenities, not even the ordinary little courtesies of everyday life. The houses were shabby and unpainted, there were ruins and rubble, there were crowds everywhere. It seemed to Robert that the difficulty of existing made existence hardly worth while … the difficulty of obtaining a decent meal, of buying a pair of shoes, of getting your watch mended … nobody cared whether you got what you wanted or not, take it or leave it was the general attitude. The difficulty of transport was even worse; tubes and buses were crammed to overflowing and people scrambled to enter them in much the same way as panicking people in a shipwreck might scramble for the boats. Sauve qui peut! "

― D.E. Stevenson , Vittoria Cottage (Dering Family, #1)