Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

In September 1940, German planes began raining bombs on British cities, causing death and destruction on a scale never

before seen. But in the capital, the Blitz wasn't their only threat to people's safety.

In today's episode, John Borkham talks to Professor Amy Helen Bell about London's Second

World War crime wave, exploring dark moments that challenge

the cosy idea of blitz spirit and revealing how serial killers, such as Gordon Cummings and

John Christie, exploited the chaos of war to carry out their heinous acts.

So Amy, your new book takes us back to London during the Second World War, at the time of the blitz, of blackouts and of fear.

Before we get going, Amy, I just wondered whether you could take us back to the beginning of the conflict, to the outbreak in 1939.

What was the atmosphere like on the streets during those early days? I think it's hard for us to imagine it now because there aren't a lot of

images or recordings. It was a world of intense anxiety and fear. The streets were blacked out,

really even before war was declared.

They were in darkness at night. People were forbidden to shine lights. The children were

being evacuated. They were evacuated two days before where it was declared from London.

So people knew their families were being torn apart. It was a period of a lot of changes and intense anxiety.

Because of the example of the Spanish Civil War, people in Britain thought that they would

be bombed immediately. So as soon as the Declaration of War came over on the radio at 11 a.m.,

they expected the bombs to come, and there was actually a false alarm, air raid siren, that came about 40 minutes later.

And people were terrified. They thought it was the German bombers coming already.

And in some ways, the fact that the Germans didn't come, and so it was this long period of tension in the phony war that really ratcheted up that anxiety

and people had time to sink and they had time to miss their children.

And of course there's all the bureaucracy of war and there's conscription waiting to be conscripted

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