Looking for Christmas memories in my father’s autobiography, I am struck not by the happier ones but by the wartime ones with their mixture of horror and hope.

1944 – Flying Bombs

In September 1944, the V2s began to hit London. Called Flying Bombs, they were long range ballistic missiles. On a terrifying night, Leonard and his father, who shared a bedroom, heard one stop above their heads. There was a moment of dread. ‘This is it!’ whispered his father.

It fell a few doors down, killing those in the houses it hit. The wall came in on my father and grandfather, all the windows in the house were broken and the doors blown off. But he, his mother and father had only minor cuts and bruises. Later the emergency services boarded up windows, replaced doors. And neighbours helped each other come to terms with the losses and keep their spirits up as much as they could.

The Fugitive

Leonard was just 23, at the start of his career as a composer – he had written the music for his first ballet The Fugitive for Rambert and it premiered in November in Bedford. My father attended and was very pleased with it. Years later, when my parents lived in Leighton Buzzard, he would sometimes pick me up at Bedford station and point out the Royal County Theatre and the County Hotel where both he and Marie Rambert had stayed that night.

Not a very festive Christmas

During that year, as the bombs fell and he wrote music, his parents’ relationship had broken down completely and his mother had moved out. She came home at Christmas to cook lunch but he writes that it was not very festive.

1945 – new beginnings

And then in 1945, alongside his composing and playing, he continued service in the Home Guard; he met my mother and they married as World War II in Europe ended.

He was young, with his life ahead of him, a naturally hopeful time, but inspired by him I never want to lose my belief that, whatever life throws at us, however dark the times, music has the power to create community, connection and love.

Good wishes for 2024

Wishing you all well for this holiday time, and that 2024 brings us more peace, justice and security – and always more healing music.

Caroline Salzedo