Kath pushed her mother gently aside and began to retrieve pieces of broken plate. ‘Mark probably won’t get accepted anyway. He’s only an apprentice carpenter, after all. Don’t you have to have all kinds of exams to be a pilot?’

When Mark told them that the seaplane station would be opening its doors to the public for the first time on Empire Day, Kath’s first response was irritation. She couldn’t get excited about going to look at aeroplanes, and Saturdays were the best shifts for tips. But then Joan declared that she definitely wasn’t going to miss the chance of meeting one of those dashing test pilots, so they went out shopping for new summer frocks.

It was a fine day, perhaps the first time the sun had actually given any warmth, and the breeze gentle enough for Kath to wear her hat. ‘You look the bee’s knees, missy,’ Pa said.

Even as they entered the gates she began to sense what it was that held her brother in such thrall. She’d often watched planes landing and taking off, from the windows of the cafe. At a distance they appeared graceful, even beautiful, like swans landing or leaving a lake. And their names, so familiar from Mark’s recitations, sounded friendly: Fairey Seafoxes, a Swordfish, Short Cockles, Short Singapores, the Saunders-Roe Princess, the Sara London and the Short Knuckleduster.

Now she could see for the first time how truly enormous these planes were, so powerful and even menacing, with their studded metal bodies and solid-looking engines, the propellers at their snouts and great wings stretching out for yards on either side.

They watched as one of them revved its engines with an ear-splitting roar, motored out to sea and then, gathering speed, skimmed across the waves until it lifted into the sky, circling once or twice as it gained height. A few minutes later the crowd gave a collective gasp as a tiny figure jumped from the plane, falling unchecked for several terrifying seconds until the parachute opened above him like a white flower, jerking him upwards as it caught the wind, and then floating gently down into the sea. Everyone applauded. The plane made another turn and a second man jumped, then a third, as an inflatable dinghy circled below to rescue them.

After the display ended they went in search of Hangar G, where Mark had said he’d be most of the day to staff an exhibition. He was particularly keen to show off a large model aeroplane he’d helped to build and, after giving it sufficient admiration, Kath and Joan wandered around the rest of the exhibits of photographs, uniforms and flags, doing their best to feign interest. It was warm inside the hangar, and Kath’s feet were already starting to blister in her new kitten heels.

‘I could do with an ice-cream. D’you think they’ll have a van somewhere?’

Mark was demonstrating the model to a tall man in naval uniform, and from the way his eyes seemed to follow every gesture and how he laughed immoderately at every comment, it was clear this was someone very important. She’d never seen her brother so apparently entranced.