This book follows a few London friends through the WW2 turmoil, with plans changed, lives altered and unimaginable experiences.
Jenny signs up as a nurse during the Blitz partly to escape a controlling family, and gains independence and respect through hard, demanding work.
Meanwhile the young man she used to fancy , Matthew, has been posted to Burma, but Japan entering the war puts him in danger and then a prison camp. He'd quickly married Susan, a lass he met in Birmingham on a posting, and this is the most unbelievable part, since she is barely literate and totally self centred, the opposite of his own upbringing.
Jenny should move on with her romantic life, but somehow never does, and after the war there is a shortage of men. The story sticks there for a good while before a resolution we all saw coming.
Okay for a read, but I got the impression the author ran out of plot, or needed a harder edit. As with many of these social history books, the main point is the war conditions. Nursing was quite a usual occupation for women, so I have better enjoyed more unusual tales such as munitions workers and timber workers.
This is an unbiased review.