Few Eggs and No Oranges: The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45

by Vere Hodgson, Jenny Hartley (Preface)

Vere Hodgson worked for a Notting Hill Gate charity during the Second World War ; being sparky and unflappable, she was not going to let Hitler make a difference to her life, but the beginning of the Blitz did, which is why she began her published diaries on 25 June 1940: 'Last night at about 1 a.m. we had the first air raid of the war on London. My room is just opposite the police station, so I got the full benefit of the sirens. It made me leap out of bed...' The war continued for five more years, but Vere's comments on her work, friends, what was happening to London and the news ('We hold our breath over Crete', 'There is to be a new system of Warning') combine to make Few Eggs and No Oranges unusually readable. It is a long - 600 page - book but a deeply engrossing one. The TLS remarked: 'The diaries capture the sense of living through great events and not being overwhelmed by them... they display an extraordinary - though widespread - capacity for not giving
way in the face of horrors and difficulties.' 'A classic book that still rings vibrant and helpful today... a heartwarming record of one articulate woman's coping with the war,' wrote the Tallahassee Democratic Review.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II, Memoir, Diary, War, Biography

590 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Winifred VERE HODGSON was born in 1901 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, where her widowed mother ran the family home as a boarding house. Vere, named after an uncle who was the marine biologist on Captain Scott's ship, read History at Birmingham University, taught first at the Poggio Imperiale, the former Summer Palace of the grand dukes of Tuscany which had been turned into a 'rather select girls' school' (Mussolini's daughter was a pupil), and later on at a school in Folkestone. From the early 1930s she helped to run a local charity in Notting Hill Gate. Vere kept a diary from girlhood onwards and in 1976 edited her 1940-45 diaries for publication as Few Eggs and No Oranges. After her retirement she went to live in the village of Church Stretton in Shropshire, where she died in 1979.

Reviews

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The brain of man has gone so far beyond his morals that the only thing to do is scrap him and begin again". That was a line in this diary, written on July 22, 1944. Still applicable 75 years later, if you ask me.

The Londoners during WWII were hardy souls, enduring 5 years of bombings, shortages of everything, and despair over the war. This diary of those years makes it all real.

[Jeslyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an out-of-print book to be resurrected and reprinted in 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2010, one has to wonder how it went out of print in the first place. No matter - it is back, and readers once again have reason to sing the praises of Persephone Books for getting an outstanding read back into our hands.

Few Eggs is an abridgement (1940-45) of the extensive diaries of Vere Hodgson, who lived in London throughout WWII and experienced firsthand the privations of war on the Home Front. In sharing her diary with family members abroad, we are fortunate to have more extensive references to British and London life than might otherwise have been recorded, as the entries often read more as letters than diary and are clearly kept for others in addition to herself.

Though I've read comments expressing disappointment that deeper insights on her experience are lacking, I found her day-to-day commentary highly insightful and revealing, and despite the dearth of "philosophizing" there are many entries that invite the modern-day reader to ponder:

"Just heard the terrible news that Westminster Hall was hit last night. Also the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament...I feel we must have sinned grievously as a nation to have such sacrifices demanded of us. Indeed future generations will say we have not taken care of what was handed down to us. We should have been more careful to defend it. We must pay the price now; but it is terrible to think of the wasted years, when, sunk in enjoyment, we did not realize that the days of all we looked on as precious were numbered - that our rulers and ourselves had lost their way in a mist of false high thinking, and common sense had gone."

But accompanying her accounts of destruction and the frustrations of daily life is a near-constant humor that kept me laughing throughout:

"Macaroni seems unobtainable now. A nuisance! Perhaps a shipload will come in. I asked for it the other day, and a man behind me said: 'Can I have three bowls of gold dust, please...'"

I've been reminded countless times of the importance of keeping a journal, and this book is a great example of the value of common-man testimonies of our existence. Hers is a testimony of grit, determination, hope - "muddling through" of the highest order.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long but oh so interesting. A journal of life during the blitz, a Brummie in London and often in Birmingham, she chronicled life during WW2. What struck me most was how things came to be a new normal and how tired (literally quite often) people just felt.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently read Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of 'Housewife, 49' which was excellent, this one fell a little flat in comparison. I found it was very impersonal, and the first quarter of it consisted of little more than lists of where bombs had fallen the night before. Still interesting though.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my nonfiction book of the year. I loved it. Vere Hodgson’s daily life as a resident in Notting Hill Gate area during the blitz and years after make fascinating reading. She lives with old ladies around her. Works in welfare, providing money, clothing, food and support mainly for women and children. By night her voluntary job is being on fire watch, disposing of incendiaries, she’s pretty handy with the stirrup pump and a bucket of water. Interrupted sleep goes on for the whole war. She’s terrified, shaken, night after night, with the old ladies beside her. Also a cat, Scamp who was very popular with everyone. Her travels by packed train to see her family are unpredictable, long, often very uncomfortable . She talks to everyone, shares what she has. She bears knowing terrible things. Vere is so admiring of Winston Churchill. At times she shows compassion for what the enemy is going through at home. Most of all the diaries suggest her experience was ordinary, everyone went through it. Her diaries reveal how strong people were, enduring suffering, privation, terror in daily life but getting on with things as best they can.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this on my shelf for a long time. Read it concurrently with Judith Jones so there must be something about December that makes me long to read about food — or lack of it. Hodgson lived in London during the war and this is her diary. In one sense it is a long, boring book: endless bombings and destruction, shortages of every imaginable item including food, fabric, soap, coal etc. Difficulties of traveling to see family and friends. And yet, it was equally enthralling. From the warmth and safety of my living room it was hard not to be overwhelmed with respect and admiration for the way the Brits just carried on, esp. when it looked in the early days like they might be invaded and they stood alone against Hitler.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valuable as a bug's eye view of London during WWII, but sadly lacking in insight or introspection, resulting in essentially a 600-page laundry list of bombs and shortages. It would also benefit from some annotation.

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a contemporary record of her life in London during WW2, independent of the mass observation project, this diarist's account provides much material of historical and sociological interest for postwar readers who have no personal experience of the events she describes. It also displays much to offend current sensibilities, most notably in the expression of casual xenophobia, Schadenfreude, disaster tourism and deprecation of the response of other countries to Nazi aggression. She reveals an unashamed hostility to leaders who failed to rise to the challenge: of 'Mr De Valera', for instance, 'who does he think he is?' (253). Perhaps he mistakenly thought he was the Taoiseach of a neutral country! If the Long Fellow is dismissed as an upstart, lesser citizens of other countries are patronised by their perceived characteristic defects. Italians, amongst whom she had previously lived and worked, are 'very sweet people on the whole' (214), and Greeks are ennobled by their classical heritage; the French, with the exception of De Gaulle, display only cowardice, the Dutch, self-interested pragmatism, and the 'little yellow men', 'grinning .... as only Japs can grin', mere 'sauciness' (275, 266, 262). Russian women, however, are depicted as 'really formidable', which is presumably intended as a compliment, in contrast to the elderly English widows and spinsters whom she consistently demeans by the supposedly affectionate denomination of 'Old Dears' -- oh, dearie me! While patriotic tub-thumping and the trivialisation of foreigners and non-combatants may be accounted as the unfriendly consequences and friendly casualties of war, it surprises me that the slurs of the schoolyard survived the former teacher's postwar editing of her diaries. I would have liked to learn more about Hodgson's case work with a charitable organisation in providing assistance to those whose homes and livelihood had been destroyed. Any presumption of confidentiality was, however, dispelled by her cheerful admission to regaling the pig-breeder with tales from the poverty line. The title of this publication is also curiously inapt, given that the diarist is exercised more by the destruction of the built environment than the dietary deficiencies of Londoners. Indeed, she appears to subsist quite well on the few eggs and the illicit oranges she manages to obtain. Had she not divulged the information I would not have known that oranges were reserved for children's consumption; adults were entitled to purchase only overripe citrus fruit. Even without her under-the-counter oranges and illicit gifts from generous grocers, Hodgson seems not to have suffered from such shortages. For me, however, the descriptions of her dinners were less edifying than the books she consumed, and being in the privileged position of having access to a copyright library, I have already ordered a few out-of-print titles. Instead of the cast-list of friends, relatives and neighbours mentioned in the diary, it would have been useful to provide a dramatis personae of the politicians, pundits and other dignitaries who are no longer household names. Notwithstanding my many misgivings and its length, the diary undeniably held my attention for the two days it took me to read it. My postwar experiences, and indeed my prejudices, may not coincide with the author's, but I must grudgingly admit to having enjoyed being annoyed. Those who are even now living in war zones might recognise the impulses and share the sentiments that I, from the safety of a pacific country, cannot.

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2020 bk 168. This diary does just about the best job of describing what the Blitz and WWII in London was like for women. Vere Hodgson was a welfare worker in one section of London - living in a flat near her organizations headquarters. She talks about the difficulties of meeting the needs of those who have been bombed out, caring for elderly relatives, staying in contact with friends through difficult circumstances. Her family were the poorer, working relations of fairly influential individuals, so her contacts were many in the world of music, publication, the military, etc. She speaks of the trials of locating food, not in a whining or complaining manner, but set out so that her cousin in Africa (who she recorded the diary for) would understand what life was like. Her travel adventures to see family were many. An outstanding memoir and diary.

[Susan Liston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This one is going to stick with me for awhile. No fear of bogging down in tons of tedious details , the diaries as presented here are heavily edited from the originals. If you've ever wondered how it felt to live in London during the war, Blitz through the V-2s, here it is, and I don't know how they did it. When I think of the Covid whining, well we are pussies, read this.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of life in WW2 London. Relentless records of bombing, interspersed with food availability, friends and the office cat. I especially enjoyed her visits to her family in Birmingham. I used to live close to where Vere's family stayed, and know it well.

[Elizabeth Fensin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me over a year to read this— almost 600 pages. Long mundane sections of daily life interspersed with bombs and discoveries of fresh fruit. Even more interesting to read this during a pandemic.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was amazed to find Vere Hodgson's book to be the subject of a letter in The Times on 29/4/2020. I thought that it was 1 of the most obscure books written about WW2; I did not know that Persephone Books had resurrected it in 1999. I cannot find the copy which my mother was given by Vere, one of her oldest friends. They both went to King Edward VI High School for Girls in New St,B'ham during WW1 (only a few years earlier JRR Tolkien had left the adjacent Boys School - both are now at Edgbaston opposite b'ham University where Vere graduated in the early 1920's, before going to teach in Italy at Mussolini's daughter's school. Very few women managed to get a university educatiom in those days (Vere would have been so happy to know my daughter/Paula's granddaughter is now a Professor) I only have hazy memories of Vere who I can only have met a few times. It was only early this month,May 2020, that I discovered that Vere had died in 1979, 3 years after her book was first published in 1976, which explained why, after Paula died in 1983, I was unable to contact her. I must be one of the only people mentioned in her book (at the age 0f 10 in Oct 1943) still alive, being the only surviving member of my family, outliving both my mother & younger brother. I can remember, towards the end of her life, Vere visited Paula & showed her a family tree, (illuminated, coats of arms,etc) tracing her ancestry back to Queen Elizabeth I.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is subtitled "A Diary showing how Unimportant People in London and Birmingham lived through the war years", and that's a very good description of it. Hodgson, a social worker in Notting Hill, simply kept a record of what she and the people around her did on a daily basis during the war -- blitzes, blackouts, rationing, the whole bit -- and though it could easily have gotten repetitive, it's instead engaging, giving a vivid picture of civilian wartime life. I found her worship of Churchill especially endearing; at one point she says that a statue of gold should be erected to him in thanks.

[Toast · Rating 5 out of 5]

2020 Re-read. I still think it is brilliant. A five star read. What a wonderful 'recorder' VH is, bringing to life Home History in such a human way, in its rich, funny, sad, unique variety of ways. I love it.
Toast

[Mike Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

War work: Vere Hodgson’s diary runs from June 1940, just after the phoney war ended with the Battle of Britain, through to VE Day. A self-styled ‘ordinary person’ who lived in North Kensington, she was, nevertheless, an assiduous and observant diarist. Expecting a miserable trudge through the privations of This Country’s Finest Hour (TM), I instead find a careful, unemotional and stoic account of some pretty dreadful events, and a compelling bit of social history.

If occasionally the tone becomes a bit too pompous or teacherly (such as when she thanks an injured Canadian serviceman in hospital “on behalf of this country”), she can be forgiven. The nightly diet of air raids, death and mayhem, and the daily diet of little food, no treats and worries about the course of the war, were harsh and unremitting. It’s related in a steady, slightly irritable tone that makes you think she was quite a formidable lady in a very British way - all tweed skirts, tinned salmon and lavender water. Most of my great aunts and grandmothers in fact.

Some of the stoicism is well-founded, some of it not. But she’s no fool, our Vere. She quotes approvingly:

“The bombing of Plymouth had roused Drake...Nelson was back, and Wellington was not sleeping in his grave. Besides, no man minded dying when he was going to join such folk as they.” This was Quentin Reynolds, in fact a US journalist and propagandist who helped swing America behind the war. Contrast however with “Heard the Queen speak. Very sweet - and quite a few phrases that saved it from banality.”

Interestingly in these Brexit times, she dissects British exceptionalism. On the one hand, lull psychology: “The conviction that the British cannot be beaten...is deeply rooted in the hearts of the British people. It is a priceless possession but this spirit can also act as an opiate...” but at the same time mentioning cartoonist Fougasse’s most famous work: “Alone....fifty blooming million of us....” [actually it was the Empire - and 500 million of us].

She could be bombastic: “Tokyo has been bombed. And we all feel better for that.” And realistic: “They say the English and the Chinese are alike - the same insufferable self-satisfaction and complacency.”

The British character in microcosm: splenetic, passive-aggressive, sceptical, credulous, respectful and iconoclastic. Ultimately, she made it through without a doodle or a V2 dropping on her head, and with a cheerful desire to throttle Hitler intact - and I do believe, given the slightest chance, she would have done. Bravo, ma’am!

[Losososdiane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very long and, in some ways, tedious book. This diary is a first hand history document that basically records events and some personal reactions to the events but leaves the reader in the dark about the personality and deeper emotions of the writer. I think the value in the book is that you live with the author through the Blitz--the sounds of the airplanes overhead, the sounds of the falling bombs, the sounds of exploding buildings. You never know what is coming next. The sleep deprivation and the uncertainty, the cravings for unavailable foods dominate but, whenever possible, people are out shopping for clothes, going to the cinema and the theater, enjoying tea with friends. Life goes on in the midst of this hell.

In my own experience I have to compare reading of the author's experiences with something that happened in the days immediately after 9/11 in a fairly pleased-with-themselves, new upper class community in northern California. After enduring the week of no-flying-allowed, a small plane flew over the vast tracts of lovely homes and emitted some colored smoke. It was an airline pilot practicing her off-duty hobby of stunt flying. The people of the town panicked, the 911 switchboards lit up and some began to scream "We're gonna die!", etc. What a contrast.

The author kept mentioning Brum, where her parents and sister lived. I had never heard of this place but a quick email to a friend who grew up near Birmingham solved the mystery. Brum is another name for Birmingham.

This diary made a nice bit of first-hand history background for John Lukacs' Five Days in London, May 1940. Lukacs notes how concerned Churchill was about the resolve and morale of the British public. I was able to go back to the diary and read this author's comments.

[Tia]

This turned out to be a hidden gem of a book. Over almost 600 pages, we get a detailed portrait of life under the shadow of war. War stories usually bring to mind scenes from the battlefront, stories from soldiers, war hospitals, or living under occupation. This is an unique war story; Vere Hodgson lives what she calls an unimportant life in London during WW2. For 76 consecutive nights, London is bombed during the blitz. Human spirit though is nothing if not resilient and by the end of the war, some Londoners want to see a raid in action while others nonchalantly go about their routines.

Throughout the years Vere keeps her spirits up while being by turns amusing, sarcastic and exhausted. Oranges and fruits of any kind are a favourite and hard to come by. She even risks trying to pluck the mulberries from the garden of an empty neighbouring house and gets censured by the police. To think of all that fruit rotting on trees while the country goes hungry, she laments. Luckily the mulberries are rescued and her Auntie Nell turns it into jam. This diary is full of stories of this sort. The resourcefulness and sheer will of people.

I loved Vere's dairy and the sheer energy she brought to everything she did. Her curiosity is boundless and her enthusiasm unflagging. Cant help thinking that reading it in Mar of 2020, while we are living unreal lives ourselves might have added to the enjoyment. In any case, if Vere and London could get through the war, we have good role models to look up to.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this wartime diary of an ordinary Londoner really interesting. It took me a while to get into, before I became familiar with the various people mentioned. It's a weighty tome at over 600 pages, but easy to pick up and enjoy in small or large chunks.

A fascinating insight into everyday life from air raids to rationing. Hodgson puts it into wider historical context with the mention of key events - such as battles or the sinking of an important ship - and speeches by Churchill and others.

This has really made me want to read On the Other Side: Letters to My Children From Germany 1940-46 paperback

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time, this book got me interested in diaries written by women during WWII. Hodgson writes about living in London during the Blitz. She works all day, goes home for dinner, then returns to work to guard the building from incindiaries and to shelter from bombs that fall nightly. She often sleeps on the floor of her office, sometimes under a desk or table, then wakes up with the all clear signal around 5am, trudges home for a few hours sleep then gets up and does it all again. She is resilient.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to give this anything less than five stars.
It is an amazing piece of history and I found it a fascinating read. Hearing what Vere, and the people around her, were doing and experiencing and going through during these war years (and knowing that they all existed) made it an emotional read. It did make me reflect a lot, and it felt very immersive.

Yes, as some others have pointed out it is repetitive in places. To combat this I'd recommend reading it in small chunks over a long period, rather than all at once. It's a great book to dip in and out of.

[Starfish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vere Hodgson's wartime diary of her years living in London during the Blitz is really interesting. At the same time as it is an incredibly depressing record of destruction and death, but it is also an uplifting account of human endurance and tenacity. It's also interesting to see an un-PC account of the war: Vere's bias and prejudices probably explain a good deal why people were so eager to go to war a second time.

[Marybeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so absorbed in this book that after a while it felt like I was living through the blitz with the author and her family and friends. It's a very straight forward read, and personal details about the author's inner life are few and far between, but you absolutely feel like you're there with Vere in her bedsit in Notting Hill. The historical details are invaluable to anyone interested in the time period.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A diary well worth reading. Long but easily taken in smaller, daily doses. Londoner Vere Hodgson details everyday life in England throughout WWII. Originally written as a journal/letters to mail to her cousin in Southern Africa, she tracks life during the blitz and her work for a humanitarian/spiritual (?) organization with lots of rationing/transit/seasonal information sprinkled throughout.

May 11, 1941
“Just heard the terrible news that Westminster Hall was hit last night. Also, the Abbey and the houses of parliament. They saved the roof to a large extent. In the abbey it was the lantern. At first they thought Big Ben had crashed! One cannot comment on such things. I feel we must have sinned grievously as a nation to have such sacrifices demanded of us. Indeed, future generations will say we have not taken care of what was handed down to us. We should have been more careful to defend it. We must pay the price now; but it is terrible to think of the wasted years, when, sunk in enjoyment, we did not realize that the days of all we looked on as precious were numbered – that our rulers and ourselves had lost their way in the midst of false high thinking, and common sense had gone.”

October 30, 1941
Upon moving into her new flatlet…
“ The chaos of my new habitation was so great that it looked as if a bomb had dropped in the room. Then the bell rang! My bell! The wonderful Mrs. Watkins arrived. Her idea was not to sit on a chair, but to clean all the furniture with the linseed oil and vinegar. We then sat down and drink tea, all praising are handiwork. What a difference!”

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vere Hodgson's wartime diary is interesting, but only up to a point. It's a useful first-hand account of wartime life in London. Both at the beginning of the war and right at the end, when V1 and V2 rockets are raining down on the city, you get a real sense of the ever-present possibility of death, and a feeling for how ordinary Londoners coped with it .

However, it's important to understand that Vere Hodgson wasn't really an "ordinary Londoner" at all. She was a very middle-class woman who worked at the centre of the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association, a charity which clearly did a lot to help people displaced or impoverished by the bombing, but which was primarily concerned with publicising the work of Winnifred Moyes, a trance medium who claimed to be channelling the teachings of a spirit guide called Zodiac.

That's interesting in itself because it's notable that there was a real surge in interest in spiritualism at this time, for obvious reasons. As a consequence, however, the book's focus is divided between descriptions of the exigencies of the war, meetings with Ms Hodgson's large list of acquaintances, and the task of getting out the organisation's regular newsletter with its encouraging messages from the spirit world.

The result is a lengthy read, and there's a lot of chaff for only a little wheat.

[Mark Bowden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not the clearest diary I have read; it contains a number of obscure references and incomprehensible passages; but it is full of interest and is an incredibly valuable historical document, as many people have noted. Diaries have the advantage of immediacy and recording the thoughts of the writer at the time (though this one has been edited), whereas memoirs record what the writer thinks that they thought, or wants others to believe that they thought, fifty years later, with the benefit of hindsight.
The lack of hindsight here is particularly interesting, as showing what the writer believed at the time which is now known to be erroneous. For instance, several entries show that Hodgson thought that targets could be easily identified and accurately hit by aerial bombers, an idea that had been bought both by the general public and the authorities. Only during the course of the War did the wild inaccuracy of aerial bombing become apparent.
I would like to read this book again slowly and try to find out about those obscure references and incomprehensible passages - if only I had time.

[Carol Heesch · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like this book; it was a hard slog for me--590 pages! That doesn't include a lengthy Preface and Foreward. Vere Hodgson worked for the Greater World Association, an odd trust that was strong in spiritualism and religion. A lot of the book is given over to sermons, preachers, and mediums and their prophecies. Hodgson follows the War and it's battles in tedious detail. I was wanting ordinary details as written by a Londoner. She does write a little about it, hence the title. This wasn't written as part of England's Mass Observation Project; it was written as letters to friends and family. This may be why she relays news of plays she's seen, preachers, and people who come and go at the Trust. She was in London at a time that the City was under attack, on average, every thirty-six hours for five years. That's just incredible, yet the alerts and bombings aren't given much space in the book. Hodgson reports, as if from a distance, and maybe that's the difference between her and other wartime diaries.

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting account of the war by an ‘ordinary’ person, Vere Hodgeson who worked for a charity in London and kept this account of the war years which she would often send to relatives to keep the updated about the war. This is an important source of social history of this period and illustrates how much people’s lives changed with transport disrupted, food and clothing shortages and rationing and living in constant fear of being bombed or invaded and all the extra duties civilians had to take on like fire watching and fire fighting. I found the second half an easier read than the first half as there is less written for each month/ year so it reads quicker and the early parts can be a bit repetitive (not the author’s fault as this is an account of her life). It took me a while to read but I would recommend this especially if interested in reading more primary sources about the blitz/ home front.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a large work and took me over a month to read. Very definitely worth reading. WWII is a chapter of the 20th C that I have always been interested in. I feel that the only way to access the truth of what happened is through the diaries and memoirs of the people who lived through it. Vere writes with honesty and humour, she lived through the blitz and rationing, worked to help those losing homes and with no place to sleep, opened doors to soldiers passing by and reveals the interesting conversations she shared with those around her. If you want to know what a town or city was like during these times, this is a wonderful edition to the past events of the era.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know I like nothing more than a WWII memoir but ---yawwwwnnnn--I can not see the point of 600 pages of diary devoted to NOTHING more than the daily bombscare--what time it happened, what the weather was, whether she got ANY sleep, did she sleep at work or at home, if at work what time did she finally slog home(?), touring around town to report on bomb damage---yawwwwnnn. 600 pages of this! I had to bail after 100.
Honestly Persephone Press, you could have done better (and this was one of their earliest publications!)