Kiss the girls goodbye - Lilian Harry

31st December 1939
It was the first New Year's Eve that anyone could remember that there hadn't been crowds celebrating at midnight in Trafalgar Square. 'It's like a blooming churchyard,' Phyl Jennings whispered to her cousin Jo as they trudged through the snowy streets on their way to report for the late-night shift at the Marble Arch Corner House. 'I mean, any other New Year's Eve there?d be gangs of people dancing and singing in the streets, the pubs would be packed full and the Square would be one big party. Now look at it - no Christmas lights, no music, nothing nice is happening at all.'

So begins 1940 for the Nippies at the Lyons Corner House at Marble Arch. Kiss the Girls Goodbye follows the lives of the five waitresses we met in Corner House Girls observing their families, boyfriends, husbands, customers and friends through the harrowing period of the Second World War. There are bombs and blackouts, curfews and rationing, romances and terrible losses but through it all, come what may, the Corner House will be open for business.