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Henrietta's War #1
Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942
Spirited Henrietta wishes she was the kind of doctor's wife who knew exactly how to deal with the daily upheavals of war. But then, everyone in her close-knit Devonshire village seems to find different ways to cope: there's the indomitable Lady B, who writes to Hitler every night to tell him precisely what she thinks of him; the terrifyingly efficient Mrs Savernack, who relishes the opportunity to sit on umpteen committees and boss everyone around; flighty, flirtatious Faith who is utterly preoccupied with the latest hats and flashing her shapely legs; and then there's Charles, Henrietta's hard-working husband who manages to sleep through a bomb landing in their neighbour's garden. With life turned upside down under the shadow of war, Henrietta chronicles the dramas, squabbles and loyal friendships that unfold in her affectionate letters to her 'dear childhood friend' Robert. Warm, witty and perfectly observed, "Henrietta's War" brings to life a sparkling community of determined troupers who pull together to fight the good fight with patriotic fervour and good humour."Henrietta's War" is part of The Bloomsbury Group, a new library of books from the early twentieth-century chosen by readers for readers.
176 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1985
30 people are currently reading
2272 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Dennys
31 books18 followers JOYCE DENNYS was born 14th August 1883 in India. The Dennys family relocated to England in 1886. Dennys enjoyed drawing lessons throughout her schooling and later enrolled at Exeter Art School. In 1919 Dennys married Tom Evans, a young doctor, and they moved to Australia. While living in New South Wales, Dennys's work was constantly in print and exhibited in many galleries. In 1922 Joyce became a mother and moved back to England. Her drawing took second place to the domestic and social duties of a doctor's wife and mother and she became increasingly frustrated. She voiced her frustrations through the character of Henrietta, a heroine she created for an article for Sketch. Henrietta was to become so important to Dennys that she once remarked, ‘When I stopped doing the piece after the war, I felt quite lost. Henrietta was part of me. I never quite knew where I ended and she began.' These letters were later compiled to form Henrietta's War, first published by Andre Deutsch in 1985.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 166 reviews
May 9, 2018
I'll indulge my inner Britishness and just say this was delightfully witty. Fictional letters to a friend describing village life during the war. I highlighted many snarky comments that I plan to use. At one point there was a plan discussed to arm the women to defend the home front, and her daydream of having a gun to use at the butchers shop when someone jumped the queue still has me laughing.
December 15, 2018
WWII from the perspective of the home front in a small village in Devon. I was taken aback and disconcerted at how light-hearted and cheerful it is, frothy, even. But then one recollects that as a collection of newspaper sketches, many if not most of its original readers had plenty of grim reality close at hand and probably cherished its wittiness greatly. It's enlivened by sketches by the author which add some period charm.
July 16, 2025
I closed this book after the last page and laughed for a minute straight. I think that’s all that need be said in its praise.
March 24, 2017
This is a compilation of a set of fictional letters based one the real WW II experiences in Joyce’s town. While she and her family are given different names, everyone else in the book is fictional as is the childhood friend they are addressed to. They were printed in a London newspaper throughout the war.
The humour is lovely, the characters endearing and the writing good. Naturally, WW II was a serious time, but there is almost always a time and place for humour to help people cope, and I think this is a good one. This book ends during 1941, and I’m waiting for the second in this two book series to arrive to read the letters from the rest of the war.
The humour is lovely, the characters endearing and the writing good. Naturally, WW II was a serious time, but there is almost always a time and place for humour to help people cope, and I think this is a good one. This book ends during 1941, and I’m waiting for the second in this two book series to arrive to read the letters from the rest of the war.
January 6, 2025
Oh, my goodness. This book! If you took the candidness of the letters in "the Guernsey book" and kept it to one point of view... AND maybe set it in a village like D. E. Stevenson's Silverstream, you'd have this.
Henrietta is a delightful mixture of practical and foolishness all wrapped up in a woman with grown children and a bemused doctor husband. I kind of feel like Charles is a lot like Mrs. Polifax's husband must have been. I can just hear him calling her a "lovable little goose."
Not much actually happens in the book... and you don't care. In fact, I think that's what makes it so good.
We know little about the man, Robert, she's writing to, but we know all about her, her neighbors, and the people who come to Devon to get out of the very areas they then seem to think are so superior.
Already listening to the next. Must buy paperbacks.
Henrietta is a delightful mixture of practical and foolishness all wrapped up in a woman with grown children and a bemused doctor husband. I kind of feel like Charles is a lot like Mrs. Polifax's husband must have been. I can just hear him calling her a "lovable little goose."
Not much actually happens in the book... and you don't care. In fact, I think that's what makes it so good.
We know little about the man, Robert, she's writing to, but we know all about her, her neighbors, and the people who come to Devon to get out of the very areas they then seem to think are so superior.
Already listening to the next. Must buy paperbacks.
January 31, 2021
This is a short, amusing book, a collection of fictional letters written by the wife of a Devonshire doctor during the Second World War. The couple is middle-aged to elderly, their kids having left home. The doctor is respected and has a large clientele, keeping him busy from early morning to late in the evening. Every week or two, another letter is written. They are addressed to Robert and all signed “from your affectionate childhood friend.”
Of what does the doctor’s wife write? Daily life, and in a lighthearted, humorous fashion, admitting at times though that she is afraid. She writes of rationing, of incendiaries, of her longtime friends and neighbors, each with his or her own idiosyncrasy, of their gardens, dogs and pets, of Londoners and summer residents.
One reads this book for its humor, not to learn of the war. It is more how events are told rather than what happens that is amusing.
To give you a feel for the humor, here follow a few examples:
We meet flirtatious, clothes fixated Faith. Will she agree to marriage to obtain additional clothing rations? Married couples share rations!
The quality and quantity of daily necessities is so lacking, one must gaze at the sea. Only then does one think, "Thank goodness! There is enough of something!”
Gardens are important--as a source of food, for the joy flowers bring, and as a form of identity and prestige.
Question: “Are you a gardener?”
Answer: “I am a weeder.”
They have a “large garden, but not so large to make the house look like a tool shed!” Do you perceive the humor?
It is hard to take sentences out of their context; often in doing so the humor gets lost! In any case, I do think you will laugh as you read this book.
Mandy Gasson narrates the audiobook--rather quickly, but still it is not hard to follow. Every word is clearly enunciated. She sings portions too, and she does it well. I wonder if she isn’t an actress?! The narration I have given four stars; it’s very good!
This book is fun. It is an exception. How often have you find a book of humor in connection to war? I don’t find it wrong to look for humor in a serious subject. To laugh is healthy! I do recommend the book; it’s good. I will in the future pick up the second book. It’s a continuation of the first.
****************
*Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 3 stars
*Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 TBR
These more serious non-fiction titles might interest some readers:
*Train to Nowhere: One Woman's War, Ambulance Driver, Reporter, Liberator 5 stars by Anita Leslie
*The Face of War 4 stars by Martha Gellhorn
*The View from the Ground 4 stars by Martha Gellhorn
*Once There Was a War 3 stars by John Steinbeck
Of what does the doctor’s wife write? Daily life, and in a lighthearted, humorous fashion, admitting at times though that she is afraid. She writes of rationing, of incendiaries, of her longtime friends and neighbors, each with his or her own idiosyncrasy, of their gardens, dogs and pets, of Londoners and summer residents.
One reads this book for its humor, not to learn of the war. It is more how events are told rather than what happens that is amusing.
To give you a feel for the humor, here follow a few examples:
We meet flirtatious, clothes fixated Faith. Will she agree to marriage to obtain additional clothing rations? Married couples share rations!
The quality and quantity of daily necessities is so lacking, one must gaze at the sea. Only then does one think, "Thank goodness! There is enough of something!”
Gardens are important--as a source of food, for the joy flowers bring, and as a form of identity and prestige.
Question: “Are you a gardener?”
Answer: “I am a weeder.”
They have a “large garden, but not so large to make the house look like a tool shed!” Do you perceive the humor?
It is hard to take sentences out of their context; often in doing so the humor gets lost! In any case, I do think you will laugh as you read this book.
Mandy Gasson narrates the audiobook--rather quickly, but still it is not hard to follow. Every word is clearly enunciated. She sings portions too, and she does it well. I wonder if she isn’t an actress?! The narration I have given four stars; it’s very good!
This book is fun. It is an exception. How often have you find a book of humor in connection to war? I don’t find it wrong to look for humor in a serious subject. To laugh is healthy! I do recommend the book; it’s good. I will in the future pick up the second book. It’s a continuation of the first.
****************
*Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 3 stars
*Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 TBR
These more serious non-fiction titles might interest some readers:
*Train to Nowhere: One Woman's War, Ambulance Driver, Reporter, Liberator 5 stars by Anita Leslie
*The Face of War 4 stars by Martha Gellhorn
*The View from the Ground 4 stars by Martha Gellhorn
*Once There Was a War 3 stars by John Steinbeck
June 6, 2014
This book consists of fictional letters from the pen of Henrietta Brown, a housewife and mother, married to local doctor Charles, written to her childhood friend Robert. However, much of the life of Henrietta mirrored that of Joyce Dennys; born in India, she attended Art School in Exeter (in the book, her lodger was also a fellow art student) and she was also the wife of a doctor, a mother and a writer and artist. During the way, the character of Henrietta became a propaganda tool; a comfort to those people who read the letters in Sketch magazine, as well as helping her own frustration at not being able to work as a writer. Husband Charles amazement when somebody sends her an unexpected food parcel from Australia after reading one of her, “mouldy little stories” probably shows her resentment more than any other line in the book. These letters were compiled in book form in the 1980’sand it’s good to see them re-released on kindle for a new audience to enjoy.
There are two volumes of the Henrietta letters and this is the first, which covers the period 1939 to 1942. Henrietta lives in Devon, a ‘safe area’ in rural England. However, that is not to say that residents do not have their own concerns – from the threat of invasion, to taking in evacuees, digging for freedom, running sewing bees and jumble sales – these people were the backbone of the country during wartime. Anyone who has read anything about the Home Front knows that the WI virtually fed the country during wartime, while women volunteered as nurses, drivers and in so many ways kept things at home running. It is this that Henrietta reports on – reassuring those at home and in the forces that everything would be there for them when they return; that people could cope and would not fail in their task.
As a book though, this is utterly charming. We enjoy meeting Henrietta’s friends and neighbours – the attractive Faith, who has the ‘Conductor’ following her everywhere, boring people with his tales of unrequited love; Lady B, who writes letters to Hitler before bedtime, sternly informing, “just exactly what she thinks of him,” and the rather argumentative Mrs Savernack, who sits on committees and “bosses everyone.” Henrietta is frightened of big bangs, although when Londoners appear with their tales of the blitz, it results in some bad feelings between the locals and visitors. However, when Henrietta does re-visit the capital, “Here I am,” says London, “knocked about a bit, but still here, and ready to give a welcome to a Country Cousin.” I am delighted to give space to Henrietta, whose letters still read with warmth and humour. If you read and enjoy this, then I urge you to read the second volume, “Henrietta Sees It Through,” which follows the news from the home front from 1942 – 1945.
There are two volumes of the Henrietta letters and this is the first, which covers the period 1939 to 1942. Henrietta lives in Devon, a ‘safe area’ in rural England. However, that is not to say that residents do not have their own concerns – from the threat of invasion, to taking in evacuees, digging for freedom, running sewing bees and jumble sales – these people were the backbone of the country during wartime. Anyone who has read anything about the Home Front knows that the WI virtually fed the country during wartime, while women volunteered as nurses, drivers and in so many ways kept things at home running. It is this that Henrietta reports on – reassuring those at home and in the forces that everything would be there for them when they return; that people could cope and would not fail in their task.
As a book though, this is utterly charming. We enjoy meeting Henrietta’s friends and neighbours – the attractive Faith, who has the ‘Conductor’ following her everywhere, boring people with his tales of unrequited love; Lady B, who writes letters to Hitler before bedtime, sternly informing, “just exactly what she thinks of him,” and the rather argumentative Mrs Savernack, who sits on committees and “bosses everyone.” Henrietta is frightened of big bangs, although when Londoners appear with their tales of the blitz, it results in some bad feelings between the locals and visitors. However, when Henrietta does re-visit the capital, “Here I am,” says London, “knocked about a bit, but still here, and ready to give a welcome to a Country Cousin.” I am delighted to give space to Henrietta, whose letters still read with warmth and humour. If you read and enjoy this, then I urge you to read the second volume, “Henrietta Sees It Through,” which follows the news from the home front from 1942 – 1945.
March 29, 2011
Delightful classic English village humor. Think Angela Thirkell without the nastiness, snobbery, and tendency to run on. Agatha Cristie without the body in the library.
If you need something to help you cope with the sheer awfulness of life today--and the pervasive corrosive cynicism--this will do nicely.
If you need something to help you cope with the sheer awfulness of life today--and the pervasive corrosive cynicism--this will do nicely.
April 20, 2018
A lovely, gentle, cozy read. This book transports you to an English village at the height of WWII. It might seem an odd time and place to find so much gentleness and hope but the characters of the book show so much strength in challenging situations that you can't help but love them.
February 10, 2018
Enjoyed this immensely. A lighthearted look at a series subject.
Set in WWII in a small English village, it's a look at the attitude of the people by the local doctor's wife. Though the names are different, this is written at the actual time of the war so we have first hand accounts throughout. It is in the form of letters to an old friend at the front and she is filling him in on all the doings of the village.
If you enjoy home front stories of the war and some great character depictions, you'll love this. Would definitely recommend it.
Set in WWII in a small English village, it's a look at the attitude of the people by the local doctor's wife. Though the names are different, this is written at the actual time of the war so we have first hand accounts throughout. It is in the form of letters to an old friend at the front and she is filling him in on all the doings of the village.
If you enjoy home front stories of the war and some great character depictions, you'll love this. Would definitely recommend it.
January 13, 2016
For most of this book my rating was a ★★ or ★★★ rating. But as I read the last couple of entries I just began to see so much more of her humor. Not sure that I had realized that she had also done the illustrations. And I think it began to remind me more of the Lucia and Mapp stories that I had stumbled upon at the local public library, long before it was on PBS.
The biographical note at the conclusion advises that Dennys had put aside her artwork when she married a doctor (much like Henrietta) and became a mother. After they came back to England and difficulties with Germany had picked up she started writing and illustrating these little missives under the name of Henrietta Brown as letters to her childhood friend Robert covering 1939 through the end of 1941. And the thing is that it was done contemporaneously. Painting an interesting picture of a small community in Wartime Devonshire.
The biographical note at the conclusion advises that Dennys had put aside her artwork when she married a doctor (much like Henrietta) and became a mother. After they came back to England and difficulties with Germany had picked up she started writing and illustrating these little missives under the name of Henrietta Brown as letters to her childhood friend Robert covering 1939 through the end of 1941. And the thing is that it was done contemporaneously. Painting an interesting picture of a small community in Wartime Devonshire.
July 16, 2018
I had wanted to read Joyce Dennys' Henrietta's War: Notes from the Home Front, 1939-1942 for such a long time before I finally got my hands on a copy. I have seen many favourable reviews of it over the years, and am now adding my own into the mix. The book's blurb greatly praises Dennys, saying as it does: 'Hundreds of small towns in England underwent dramas similar to those enjoyed or bravely borne by the citizens of this one... But none of those other small towns sheltered an observer with such an eye for comedy, who was equally deft with pen and pencil.'
Henrietta's War is a fictionalised series of wartime letters, which first appeared as a regular magazine feature in the United Kingdom, in the now defunct Sketch. They were not published together until 1985 however, after Dennys uncovered them in a drawer during a particularly thorough spring clean. She sought a publisher for them only after being urged to do so by her friends.
There is a highly autobiographical element to these letters, and many similarities can be drawn between Dennys and Henrietta. The blurb points out that Dennys 'recreated' a facsimile of herself here, but makes clear that the rest of the characters are pure inventions. Not all of the letters have been collected together and published in this volume; rather, a selection has been made of the originals. They have been placed chronologically, as one might expect, and span the period between the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, and the Christmas of 1941.
Henrietta's War 'purports to the wartime letters to a friend serving overseas, written by a doctor's wife who lives in a seaside town' named Budleigh Salterton in Devonshire. The recipient is Robert, described as a 'middle-aged colonel on the Western Front', who has known Henrietta since both were small children. The blurb describes the way in which: 'The world she invented to counteract the glooms of wartime is a perfect one of dogs and gardens and tea parties, inhabited by bumbling vicars, retired colonels and fierce tweedy ladies who long for Hitler to land on their beach so they can give him what-for.'
The book's blurb boasts that it is 'as fresh as the day it was written'. Certainly, the tone is chatty and amusing; Dennys' series of accounts have such a warmth and affection to them, as well as an overriding intelligence. There is such understanding here, too. In the first letter, for instance, Henrietta writes: 'I think there is a tendency in our generation to adopt a superior, know-all attitude towards this war just because we happen to have been through the last one, which the young must find maddening.'
One cannot help but draw comparisons between Henrietta's War and E.M. Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady series, in terms of their general themes, standpoints, humour, and wartime settings. As with The Provincial Lady, the trivial is often discussed in rather a lighthearted way - the wearing of trousers by fellow 'slack-minded' female villagers, for instance - alongside the more serious elements of living in wartime - her husband not wanting to be called up is one poignant example. Asides are made even with such serious things; in this instance, Henrietta tells Robert that 'we are expecting a shower of white feathers by every post.' After the test of an air-raid warning, she writes: 'I haven't seen this place so gay since the Coronation.' She later says, of the effect of the war upon her: 'I find that I grow more and more absent-minded, and I blame the war. We are so constantly urged to concentrate on keeping Bright, Brave and Confident, that it doesn't give a woman a moment in which to realise that she hasn't put on her skirt that morning, or that she is walking down the High Street in her bedroom slippers.'
Henrietta's War proved to be the perfect holiday read; there is a seriousness to it, of course, given the wartime situation in which the characters have to cope, but it is filled with amusing anecdotes, and its tone is lighthearted enough to make the whole feel joyous. Dennys' accompanying illustrations are quite charming. Stylistically, they have a humour all of their own. Henrietta's War is filled with character, and is highly entertaining from start to finish.
Henrietta's War is a fictionalised series of wartime letters, which first appeared as a regular magazine feature in the United Kingdom, in the now defunct Sketch. They were not published together until 1985 however, after Dennys uncovered them in a drawer during a particularly thorough spring clean. She sought a publisher for them only after being urged to do so by her friends.
There is a highly autobiographical element to these letters, and many similarities can be drawn between Dennys and Henrietta. The blurb points out that Dennys 'recreated' a facsimile of herself here, but makes clear that the rest of the characters are pure inventions. Not all of the letters have been collected together and published in this volume; rather, a selection has been made of the originals. They have been placed chronologically, as one might expect, and span the period between the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, and the Christmas of 1941.
Henrietta's War 'purports to the wartime letters to a friend serving overseas, written by a doctor's wife who lives in a seaside town' named Budleigh Salterton in Devonshire. The recipient is Robert, described as a 'middle-aged colonel on the Western Front', who has known Henrietta since both were small children. The blurb describes the way in which: 'The world she invented to counteract the glooms of wartime is a perfect one of dogs and gardens and tea parties, inhabited by bumbling vicars, retired colonels and fierce tweedy ladies who long for Hitler to land on their beach so they can give him what-for.'
The book's blurb boasts that it is 'as fresh as the day it was written'. Certainly, the tone is chatty and amusing; Dennys' series of accounts have such a warmth and affection to them, as well as an overriding intelligence. There is such understanding here, too. In the first letter, for instance, Henrietta writes: 'I think there is a tendency in our generation to adopt a superior, know-all attitude towards this war just because we happen to have been through the last one, which the young must find maddening.'
One cannot help but draw comparisons between Henrietta's War and E.M. Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady series, in terms of their general themes, standpoints, humour, and wartime settings. As with The Provincial Lady, the trivial is often discussed in rather a lighthearted way - the wearing of trousers by fellow 'slack-minded' female villagers, for instance - alongside the more serious elements of living in wartime - her husband not wanting to be called up is one poignant example. Asides are made even with such serious things; in this instance, Henrietta tells Robert that 'we are expecting a shower of white feathers by every post.' After the test of an air-raid warning, she writes: 'I haven't seen this place so gay since the Coronation.' She later says, of the effect of the war upon her: 'I find that I grow more and more absent-minded, and I blame the war. We are so constantly urged to concentrate on keeping Bright, Brave and Confident, that it doesn't give a woman a moment in which to realise that she hasn't put on her skirt that morning, or that she is walking down the High Street in her bedroom slippers.'
Henrietta's War proved to be the perfect holiday read; there is a seriousness to it, of course, given the wartime situation in which the characters have to cope, but it is filled with amusing anecdotes, and its tone is lighthearted enough to make the whole feel joyous. Dennys' accompanying illustrations are quite charming. Stylistically, they have a humour all of their own. Henrietta's War is filled with character, and is highly entertaining from start to finish.
June 25, 2015
This is the first book of the two about Henrietta's experience in the war. Her narrative voice is so funny and wry and the little cartoon drawings that are scattered throughout the book are perfect.
I love their village in Devonshire where they are trying hard to be helpful to the war effort. Like, in order to train for the A.R.P. villagers pitch in and one night as Charles is walking home he nearly runs over a figure lying at the side of the road - " "Hullo, what's the matter with you?" and a cheerful voice replied out of the darkness "I've got all my bones broken".
And I love the optimistic attitude of Henrietta. When she, Charles, and her 84 year old mother in law are training in case an incendiary bomb should fall on the house and the elderly lady trots off to get a bucket of water Henrietta says "Suddenly my spirits soared up like a rocket. How could Hitler ever dream for one single moment that there was the slightest chance of defeating people liks us?" . . . I love that. She's a little clumsy, Charles is a little busy, and Grannie is a little old, but they aren't deterred and Hitler can't beat people like that.
I'm seriously considering demanding my book club read this just so I can have more people to sit around and talk about it with (so far it's just me and Mom. Thanks, Mom).
I love their village in Devonshire where they are trying hard to be helpful to the war effort. Like, in order to train for the A.R.P. villagers pitch in and one night as Charles is walking home he nearly runs over a figure lying at the side of the road - " "Hullo, what's the matter with you?" and a cheerful voice replied out of the darkness "I've got all my bones broken".
And I love the optimistic attitude of Henrietta. When she, Charles, and her 84 year old mother in law are training in case an incendiary bomb should fall on the house and the elderly lady trots off to get a bucket of water Henrietta says "Suddenly my spirits soared up like a rocket. How could Hitler ever dream for one single moment that there was the slightest chance of defeating people liks us?" . . . I love that. She's a little clumsy, Charles is a little busy, and Grannie is a little old, but they aren't deterred and Hitler can't beat people like that.
I'm seriously considering demanding my book club read this just so I can have more people to sit around and talk about it with (so far it's just me and Mom. Thanks, Mom).
May 17, 2016
I know this is written far too often on tee towels and mugs but "keep calm and carry on" sums this book up. lots of lovely characters, and a choir which I enjoyed.
July 11, 2016
I understand some people like this book because it is "quaint." I found it hard to stomach. The novella is a series of fictional letters written by a British woman, Henrietta Brown,to her childhood "friend" Robert, who is off fighting in WWII. We learn that Henrietta previously engaged in a similar letter writing campaign during the 1st World War; and now, history is repeating itself once more. (My suspicion is that Henrietta is secretly in love with her friend although is married to another; my theory is semi-confirmed when Henrietta is giving blood and goes gaga over her attendant who looks like Robert did when he was 25)
Henrietta is fortunate to live in a "safe" area of Britain away from attack where refugees from areas being actively bombed by the Germans are welcomed. Prewar, she lived a safe life as a housewife/mother; during the war, she does the same. Her son is a soldier, her daughter a nurse. Henrietta is a very weak female character and I found myself wishing that a bomb would fall on her sewing bee group; however, I had little hope that the book would end that way because a sequel was published called "Henrietta Sees it Through." Henrietta is miffed there are so many urban refugee "bomb snobs"in her village; I have to say, I probably would have been one of them too if I had met Henrietta. I rather enjoyed it when Henrietta got into a fight with her girlfriends and was accused of being "...conceited and artificial and [her] vagueness was a pose"
Henrietta does not work out of the home (like the majority of women in the 1930s and 1940s) and thus is economically dependent on her husband, a doctor, and is servile to him. She likes being helpless. Clearly, Henrietta is not a relatable character to me. While I realize this was written in the 1940s, it was sad to see how the author, a woman, created a subservient, milquetoast, female character lacking any real substance. When I think of "keep calm and carry on", Henrietta does not spring to mind.
Henrietta's letters are intended to be humorous, cheerful and self-deprecating, but she comes across as utterly fake. Henrietta is first and foremost as a dutiful wife then a dutiful mother and finally, a dutiful citizen. She sees herself as "terrified" about almost everything and leaves the heavy cerebral lifting to her dear husband, Dr. Charles. Chuck is the top dog of this marriage among unequals. I nearly chucked the book across the room when Henrietta tells her husband that she feels that she is not really contributing to the war effort because she does not belong to any recognized organization; her husband tells her that she's doing enough by being in a sewing bee and the next day leaves her a homemade button saying L.A.B.D. When she asks him what he meant, he said "Looking After Busy Doctor". I pushed my mouth shut after reading that. I would have told him where he could pin that badge had I been his wife and he given it to me. I'm surprised he didn't pay her on the head before he sent her to fetch him some sherry after she graciously accepted his token of affection. I don't know what's worse - that she found the actions of her husband acceptable or she told another's he'd man about this as if it was! Another gem moment came when Henrietta freaked out over having to fill a form out to keep chickens. Our heroine said she was incapable of filling out a form followed by: "You know, there are times when I feel that our Art School training didn't fit us for the Battle of Life." Give that gal a prize!!! And yet another charming moment came when Henrietta fell down the stairs and her husband was cross with her; Henrietta moaned about her head hurting, and Dr. Charles, who is on his way to the tailor, says: "Poor old girl", he said, patting my shoulder kindly. "Now hurry up or the whole damn place will be shut up." Nice. I remind you once again a woman wrote this.
I am not persuaded by the sentiment that this was how women just 'were' in wartime. Rebecca West, in writing Return of the Soldier contemporaneously with the First World War, created strong female characters who were able to be tough and make hard choices during wartime when the stakes were personally high and doing the "right thing" meant potential personal disaster.
I also found it ironic that this book was published by Bloomsbury Publishing because the real Bloomsbury Group would have eaten Joyce Dennys alive.
Henrietta is fortunate to live in a "safe" area of Britain away from attack where refugees from areas being actively bombed by the Germans are welcomed. Prewar, she lived a safe life as a housewife/mother; during the war, she does the same. Her son is a soldier, her daughter a nurse. Henrietta is a very weak female character and I found myself wishing that a bomb would fall on her sewing bee group; however, I had little hope that the book would end that way because a sequel was published called "Henrietta Sees it Through." Henrietta is miffed there are so many urban refugee "bomb snobs"in her village; I have to say, I probably would have been one of them too if I had met Henrietta. I rather enjoyed it when Henrietta got into a fight with her girlfriends and was accused of being "...conceited and artificial and [her] vagueness was a pose"
Henrietta does not work out of the home (like the majority of women in the 1930s and 1940s) and thus is economically dependent on her husband, a doctor, and is servile to him. She likes being helpless. Clearly, Henrietta is not a relatable character to me. While I realize this was written in the 1940s, it was sad to see how the author, a woman, created a subservient, milquetoast, female character lacking any real substance. When I think of "keep calm and carry on", Henrietta does not spring to mind.
Henrietta's letters are intended to be humorous, cheerful and self-deprecating, but she comes across as utterly fake. Henrietta is first and foremost as a dutiful wife then a dutiful mother and finally, a dutiful citizen. She sees herself as "terrified" about almost everything and leaves the heavy cerebral lifting to her dear husband, Dr. Charles. Chuck is the top dog of this marriage among unequals. I nearly chucked the book across the room when Henrietta tells her husband that she feels that she is not really contributing to the war effort because she does not belong to any recognized organization; her husband tells her that she's doing enough by being in a sewing bee and the next day leaves her a homemade button saying L.A.B.D. When she asks him what he meant, he said "Looking After Busy Doctor". I pushed my mouth shut after reading that. I would have told him where he could pin that badge had I been his wife and he given it to me. I'm surprised he didn't pay her on the head before he sent her to fetch him some sherry after she graciously accepted his token of affection. I don't know what's worse - that she found the actions of her husband acceptable or she told another's he'd man about this as if it was! Another gem moment came when Henrietta freaked out over having to fill a form out to keep chickens. Our heroine said she was incapable of filling out a form followed by: "You know, there are times when I feel that our Art School training didn't fit us for the Battle of Life." Give that gal a prize!!! And yet another charming moment came when Henrietta fell down the stairs and her husband was cross with her; Henrietta moaned about her head hurting, and Dr. Charles, who is on his way to the tailor, says: "Poor old girl", he said, patting my shoulder kindly. "Now hurry up or the whole damn place will be shut up." Nice. I remind you once again a woman wrote this.
I am not persuaded by the sentiment that this was how women just 'were' in wartime. Rebecca West, in writing Return of the Soldier contemporaneously with the First World War, created strong female characters who were able to be tough and make hard choices during wartime when the stakes were personally high and doing the "right thing" meant potential personal disaster.
I also found it ironic that this book was published by Bloomsbury Publishing because the real Bloomsbury Group would have eaten Joyce Dennys alive.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2015
Inevitably I found myself comparing this to The Diary of a Provincial Lady which, of course, I love. But I also loved Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942, which is gentler and kinder in some ways. I assume that the setting is Budleigh Salterton, since the town seems to own several of Joyce Dennys's paintings of local scenes - they are full of the sort of characters who populate her book, which is rather joyous. I love the story, early on, that the local fisherman are telling the summer visitors outrageous stories, and Charles merely observes that perhaps the fishermen aren't always being entirely truthful. Or little comments like: "Bindweed is a crawling plant which has its roots in Australia." There are fewer references, too, to enervating battles with the servants - Henrietta seems to get on quite warmly with hers.
But despite its humour, Henrietta's War does convey the awful, grim, persistent fear that undermined the daily lives of people during the war, usually coupled with determination not to give in to it. And contrary to the belief of the summer visitors, "safe" Devon saw quite a lot of destruction, as enemy bombers dumped their bombs after attacks on the dockyards at Plymouth. Much of the countryside was closed off for training and for munitions dumps, and Henrietta's fear that when the coast path is reopened to walkers after exercises, there might be a live shell left, seems perfectly natural.
Henrietta and her friend Faith both clearly struggle with feelings of depression and frustration, leaving the reader to wonder how many people did give in, and how those around them coped if they did. This book, however, is a wonderful example of how it is possible to find laughter even in adversity, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
A final thought: the epistolary form - it is written as a series of letters to Henrietta's childhood friend, Robert, who is serving overseas - gives a sense of great immediacy and chattiness, and that you know Henrietta personally. It must have been very comforting to readers of The Sketch, where it appeared as a column, forging a link between town and country and helping to create the feeling of One (Brave Little) Nation (said in a very slightly self-deprecatory way barely masking a Typically British Stiff Upper Lip).
But despite its humour, Henrietta's War does convey the awful, grim, persistent fear that undermined the daily lives of people during the war, usually coupled with determination not to give in to it. And contrary to the belief of the summer visitors, "safe" Devon saw quite a lot of destruction, as enemy bombers dumped their bombs after attacks on the dockyards at Plymouth. Much of the countryside was closed off for training and for munitions dumps, and Henrietta's fear that when the coast path is reopened to walkers after exercises, there might be a live shell left, seems perfectly natural.
Henrietta and her friend Faith both clearly struggle with feelings of depression and frustration, leaving the reader to wonder how many people did give in, and how those around them coped if they did. This book, however, is a wonderful example of how it is possible to find laughter even in adversity, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
A final thought: the epistolary form - it is written as a series of letters to Henrietta's childhood friend, Robert, who is serving overseas - gives a sense of great immediacy and chattiness, and that you know Henrietta personally. It must have been very comforting to readers of The Sketch, where it appeared as a column, forging a link between town and country and helping to create the feeling of One (Brave Little) Nation (said in a very slightly self-deprecatory way barely masking a Typically British Stiff Upper Lip).
May 28, 2015
I have been reading a lot of domestic fiction from Britain of the 1930's and 40's, mostly diary-style and short stories. I must say that this book, which takes the form of letters from a housewife and mother in Devon to her "Childhood's Friend" Robert who is at the front, is gentler and more wistful than other books I've read in this particular genre. E. M. Delafield's funny "Provincial Lady" books, which I read snd enjoyed just before this book have a similar venue (small town, trying to make do on a budget, parenting, volunteering, and local gossip, although they are pre-WWII), but are a little more cynical and less forgiving of others' failings, getting quite a lot of mileage out of the vicar's wife, the local gentry, the bluestockings, etc. Both books, it happens, have a Lady B in them. But the Lady B in Delafield's book is an unremitting snob and rarely has a nice thing to say. The Lady B in Henrietta's War is very sweet and unsnobby. The aggressively feminist, tweed-wearing woman in HW is funny, but is treated as a human being too, not just a caricature. I found HW a refreshing and more realistic read, being both funny and sad about the reality of life in wartime.
September 18, 2015
Henrietta’s War is a charming collation of stories that ran in newspapers worldwide during WWII. Joyce Dennys was a frustrated homemaker who let her imagination run wild with her character Henrietta, and the vignettes compiled in this book are sharp and witty. The illustrations that compliment the stories are charming, and I loved seeing the ‘age’ in terms of fashion and props in the images shown.
The country townsfolk that Henrietta mentions in her letters to her dear childhood friend Robert are so full of life that they pop off the page, and it’s not hard to see why the piece ran for so long at the time. There’s an element of the ‘everyday’ that normalizes the fear of bombs, invasion, rationing, and evacuees, and certainly this would have struck a chord with the readers at the time.
Often relying heavily on wit and humor, Henrietta’s war can be dismissed as being light reading, but with an understanding of the times in which it was written, you can certainly respect Joyce for her penmanship, as there was a profound understanding of what people wanted to read at the time, to escape the harsh realities of life at the time.
The country townsfolk that Henrietta mentions in her letters to her dear childhood friend Robert are so full of life that they pop off the page, and it’s not hard to see why the piece ran for so long at the time. There’s an element of the ‘everyday’ that normalizes the fear of bombs, invasion, rationing, and evacuees, and certainly this would have struck a chord with the readers at the time.
Often relying heavily on wit and humor, Henrietta’s war can be dismissed as being light reading, but with an understanding of the times in which it was written, you can certainly respect Joyce for her penmanship, as there was a profound understanding of what people wanted to read at the time, to escape the harsh realities of life at the time.
May 14, 2018
This is a sweet little books of (fictional) letters from the home front during WWII. I enjoyed it but I did have to read just a few letters at a time. A good book to dawdle through. A comforting read when it feels like the world is going crazy.
May 19, 2017
Delightful!
September 1, 2017
Quite funny and charming.
August 28, 2018
3.5 states, very enjoyable. A lot like the Provincial Lady Series
May 4, 2010
Reason for Reading: I am reading all The Bloomsbury Group books.
Joyce Dennys who at the time was more known for her illustrations and aid work during WWI found her time more limited during WWII, being now taken up almost full-time as a mother and doctor's wife so she turned to writing, publishing a fictional letter from "Henrietta" to a dear "Childhood's Friend" on the war front about daily life back on the home front. The article proved so popular that Henrietta's letters became a regular feature in Sketch. The letters were first collected into book form in 1985.
Each letter is accompanied by one humorous illustration. The letters mostly deal with the local shenanigans going on around the village. The gossip, whose mad at who and why, the embarrassing things that happen to the writer plus the author also shows her concern for her reader "Robert", talks of the war occasionally, then gets back on track remembering her letters are supposed to make Robert forget the war and think of home.
Of course, the town is filled with eccentric characters such as the dominating Lady B. with a dog the size of a rat and the will of Hitler, the bossy though very efficient Mrs. Saversnack, the dreamy-headed flirtatious Faith and the shy absolutely smitten Composer who is madly in love with her. Then there is Henrietta herself who is a bit of a klutz and will get into the strangest situations or find herself watching one delightedly and her doctor husband who being the strong, silent type stays mainly in the background.
The book is whimsical and quaint. While concentrating on everyday life, enough information about daily living circumstances during the war such as rationing, air raid drills, committees, wardens, collecting tin and other such material for the army show just how much affect the war had on a tiny village in England even to this point where it has not been bombed. Especially when one considers that even while these letters are fictional, this is source material written at the very time the real events of those days were happening. Enjoyable, with some actual laugh out loud moments
Joyce Dennys who at the time was more known for her illustrations and aid work during WWI found her time more limited during WWII, being now taken up almost full-time as a mother and doctor's wife so she turned to writing, publishing a fictional letter from "Henrietta" to a dear "Childhood's Friend" on the war front about daily life back on the home front. The article proved so popular that Henrietta's letters became a regular feature in Sketch. The letters were first collected into book form in 1985.
Each letter is accompanied by one humorous illustration. The letters mostly deal with the local shenanigans going on around the village. The gossip, whose mad at who and why, the embarrassing things that happen to the writer plus the author also shows her concern for her reader "Robert", talks of the war occasionally, then gets back on track remembering her letters are supposed to make Robert forget the war and think of home.
Of course, the town is filled with eccentric characters such as the dominating Lady B. with a dog the size of a rat and the will of Hitler, the bossy though very efficient Mrs. Saversnack, the dreamy-headed flirtatious Faith and the shy absolutely smitten Composer who is madly in love with her. Then there is Henrietta herself who is a bit of a klutz and will get into the strangest situations or find herself watching one delightedly and her doctor husband who being the strong, silent type stays mainly in the background.
The book is whimsical and quaint. While concentrating on everyday life, enough information about daily living circumstances during the war such as rationing, air raid drills, committees, wardens, collecting tin and other such material for the army show just how much affect the war had on a tiny village in England even to this point where it has not been bombed. Especially when one considers that even while these letters are fictional, this is source material written at the very time the real events of those days were happening. Enjoyable, with some actual laugh out loud moments
August 30, 2012
Henrietta's War is a sweet collection of letters written from perfectly average Henrietta Brown, to her childhood friend Robert, who is fighting on the front lines in France. She describes in vivid detail, and with charming cartoonish illustrations, daily life in war torn rural Britain. I was surprised to find that Henrietta and the other extraordinary characters she writes about are fictional, that this book is actually a compilation of stories written in letter form and published weekly in Sketch magazine during the war. From giving blood for the first time, to saving sugar to make her husbands precious marmalade, putting up with foul margarine and collecting salvage, each of these stories describes wartime life with wit and humor, and is not to be missed.
November 4, 2018
I really loved this! I'm not a fan of books written in the form of letters or diary entries but this book and 84, Charring Cross Road may have permanently changed my mind. Charring is a publication of letters written between a female writer in America and a male bookseller in England right after WWll. Henrietta's is a publication of fictional letters that were published in a newspaper column during WWll. Both are wonderful but Henrietta's War was by far the funnier of the two. Both books showcase the mentality of the English during the war but I believe Henrietta takes it even farther and shows what it was really like for the common man and woman trying to keep a stiff upper lip and not let Hitler beat them in even the smallest ways. Truly wonderful and heart warming read!
April 29, 2016
This delightful volume is compiled of an ongoing series Joyce Dennys wrote for Sketch during the early years of the Second World War. In the form of letters to a beloved childhood friend on the front, our heroine Henrietta keeps his spirits up with the very amusing doings of her Devon village on the Home Front as they prepare for invasion, bombings, making due on rations and making sure one's garden is the envy of one's neighbours. A quick enjoyable read and, in its subtle way, a inspiration about getting through the dark times. (Be indomitably British, for one thing.)
April 29, 2016
Cheerfulness in dark times.
July 3, 2014
This was a quick and enjoyable read. The home-front issues of rationing (clothes, food, gas), blackouts, fears of invasion, vegetable gardening, evacuees, and air raids were all talked about, with humor and stoicism. I really got a sense of what it must have been like to live through that period, and the quiet courage needed to get through each day.
Some of the highlights for me--
the episode reporting on how meat rationing gave Henrietta's vegetarian neighbors a chance to show off
the silly little joke that rationing is "just offal."
Henrietta's writing that "we are so constantly urged to concentrate on keeping Bright, Brave and Confident, that it doesn't give a woman a moment in which to realize that she hasn't put on her skirt that morning, or that she is walking down the High Street in her bedroom slippers."
the firefighting practice episode where Henrietta says, "how could Hitler ever dream for one single moment that there was the slightest chance of ever defeating people like us."
Best of all was Henrietta's little "Black-outs Hey" folk song and dance.
One part I find particularly interesting was where Henrietta and her friend Mrs. Savernack were discussing the war. Mrs. Savernack called it a "Crusade." Henrietta remarked drily that she'd heard the same talk about the Great War. Her friend said THAT war had been entirely unnecessary. I just finished reading The Long Shadow which discussed the legacies of the Great War and how attitudes toward it changed in the inter-war years. The supposed unnecessariness of WWI was a very common feeling. It was interesting to me to see that expressed in this very light-hearted book.
While not great literature and certainly not a detailed history on the level of The Love-charm of Bombs, this was still a book with something to offer. I enjoyed it a lot.
Some of the highlights for me--
the episode reporting on how meat rationing gave Henrietta's vegetarian neighbors a chance to show off
the silly little joke that rationing is "just offal."
Henrietta's writing that "we are so constantly urged to concentrate on keeping Bright, Brave and Confident, that it doesn't give a woman a moment in which to realize that she hasn't put on her skirt that morning, or that she is walking down the High Street in her bedroom slippers."
the firefighting practice episode where Henrietta says, "how could Hitler ever dream for one single moment that there was the slightest chance of ever defeating people like us."
Best of all was Henrietta's little "Black-outs Hey" folk song and dance.
One part I find particularly interesting was where Henrietta and her friend Mrs. Savernack were discussing the war. Mrs. Savernack called it a "Crusade." Henrietta remarked drily that she'd heard the same talk about the Great War. Her friend said THAT war had been entirely unnecessary. I just finished reading The Long Shadow which discussed the legacies of the Great War and how attitudes toward it changed in the inter-war years. The supposed unnecessariness of WWI was a very common feeling. It was interesting to me to see that expressed in this very light-hearted book.
While not great literature and certainly not a detailed history on the level of The Love-charm of Bombs, this was still a book with something to offer. I enjoyed it a lot.
August 21, 2015
Two and a half stars. When I started this book I thought they would be real letters from a real person, to a real person. How silly of me. These are fictional "letters" written for a column in the old Sketch magazine, and the authoress is most definitely writing for women like herself: comfortable, middle-class, rural women who just want to be entertained. And if you read it as light entertainment, it's OK, I guess. But when you've cut your teeth on real WW2 diaries like Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49 it's a bit bright, a bit brittle, a bit unrealistic--which is entirely what the authoress intended. Her character overplays the "poor little dithery woman" thing to the place that even another character tells her that the vagueness is a pose!
I was reminded of Joyce Grenfell's letters in Darling Ma: Letters to Her Mother, 1932-1944. Grenfell was an avid reader of Sketch and Bystander magazines, and uses some of their socialite style in writing to her own mother during the war to sort of defuse her mother's worries. But even Grenfell was affected by rationing, shortages, and having her home help called up out from under her. She learned she could actually clean her own house, prepare her own food, and wash her own dishes. Golly! as Joyce would say. But "Henrietta" manages to have not one but two home helps all through the war, apparently, and shortages don't seem to have reached her version of Devon.
Ahhh, the joys of fiction. It's an OK bedtime read, but no substance.
I was reminded of Joyce Grenfell's letters in Darling Ma: Letters to Her Mother, 1932-1944. Grenfell was an avid reader of Sketch and Bystander magazines, and uses some of their socialite style in writing to her own mother during the war to sort of defuse her mother's worries. But even Grenfell was affected by rationing, shortages, and having her home help called up out from under her. She learned she could actually clean her own house, prepare her own food, and wash her own dishes. Golly! as Joyce would say. But "Henrietta" manages to have not one but two home helps all through the war, apparently, and shortages don't seem to have reached her version of Devon.
Ahhh, the joys of fiction. It's an OK bedtime read, but no substance.
February 15, 2011
Joyce Dennys, an illustrator by trade, wrote this series of essays as a weekly column during WW II; they purport to be letters written by Henrietta (the local doctor's wife) to her Childhood's Friend, Robert, at the Front. Gentle, wry, and often laugh-out-loud funny, Henrietta's letters describe the daily struggles of ordinary Englishmen and -women, Keeping the Home Fires Burning. Of course, each letter is illustrated by one of Dennys's witty illustrations.
This may be my favorite Bloomsbury to date (except perhaps Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, of which I was already a longtime fan). I adored the motley collection of eccentrics that people Henrietta's coastal town, from ferocious Mrs. Savernack (who gives up sleep for the duration so that she can patrol the moor on horseback by night) to giddy Faith, whose heart is touched when her beau offers her ALL his clothes coupons. But my absolute favorite is elderly, unflappable Lady B., who spends her spare time writing nasty letters to Hitler.
Here is a lovely bit: It is Lady B.'s birthday, and Henrietta notices with concern that she seems uncharacteristically blue. Gently, Henrietta probes for the wound: is Lady B. feeling frightened? No. Feeling her age? No. Well, then, what is it? "Well, it's like this," said Lady B, getting rather pink. "I know it's rather silly of me, Henrietta, but I did hope, I did HOPE," she added passionately, "that Hitler would try to invade us on my birthday."
Oh, the Brits. Churchill was correct when he said it was the old ladies of Britain who would finally break Hitler.
This may be my favorite Bloomsbury to date (except perhaps Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, of which I was already a longtime fan). I adored the motley collection of eccentrics that people Henrietta's coastal town, from ferocious Mrs. Savernack (who gives up sleep for the duration so that she can patrol the moor on horseback by night) to giddy Faith, whose heart is touched when her beau offers her ALL his clothes coupons. But my absolute favorite is elderly, unflappable Lady B., who spends her spare time writing nasty letters to Hitler.
Here is a lovely bit: It is Lady B.'s birthday, and Henrietta notices with concern that she seems uncharacteristically blue. Gently, Henrietta probes for the wound: is Lady B. feeling frightened? No. Feeling her age? No. Well, then, what is it? "Well, it's like this," said Lady B, getting rather pink. "I know it's rather silly of me, Henrietta, but I did hope, I did HOPE," she added passionately, "that Hitler would try to invade us on my birthday."
Oh, the Brits. Churchill was correct when he said it was the old ladies of Britain who would finally break Hitler.
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