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The Oaken Heart
What are your war aims, Mrs. Carter? To keep this soul I’ve got alive. To keep my spirit unenslaved.The Oaken Heart is a testament to the hope and heart that prevailed in England throughout the a hope for its future and for its freedom. Written by a bestselling crime novelist as a letter of sorts to her American publisher, it is a deeply personal record of a woman and her town at the dawn of the Second World War.Allingham beautifully follows life in Tolleshunt D'Arcy (codenamed ‘Auburn’) as the town waits with bated breath for war to break out, through the unsettling calm as war is finally declared, and as they live with the very real threat of invasion.With wit and charm, Allingham introduces Auburn, a town united, crowded around the crackling wireless, smoothly queuing for the grotesque, elephantine gas masks, opening their homes to evacuees. She recounts Auburn’s preparedness - its unwavering readiness for the war to truly begin. And when it finally did, there was still the business of living to attend to.Honest and unflinching, Allingham sheds light on daily life during the war, and the drive of Auburn to remain free and to fight. From nightly air raids to concern about head lice, and from the devastation of the Blitz to finding rooms for lovers’ quarrels, Allingham shows the absolute human quality of the British war life goes on.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
132 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Margery Allingham
269 books599 followersAka Maxwell March.
Margery Louise Allingham was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a family of writers. Her father, Herbert John Allingham, was editor of The Christian Globe and The New London Journal, while her mother wrote stories for women's magazines as Emmie Allingham. Margery's aunt, Maud Hughes, also ran a magazine. Margery earned her first fee at the age of eight, for a story printed in her aunt's magazine.
Soon after Margery's birth, the family left London for Essex. She returned to London in 1920 to attend the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter. They married in 1928. He was her collaborator and designed the cover jackets for many of her books.
Margery's breakthrough came 1929 with the publication of her second novel, The Crime at Black Dudley . The novel introduced Albert Campion, although only as a minor character. After pressure from her American publishers, Margery brought Campion back for Mystery Mile and continued to use Campion as a character throughout her career.
After a battle with breast cancer, Margery died in 1966. Her husband finished her last novel, A Cargo of Eagles at her request, and published it in 1968.
Also wrote as: Maxwell March
Margery Louise Allingham was born in Ealing, London in 1904 to a family of writers. Her father, Herbert John Allingham, was editor of The Christian Globe and The New London Journal, while her mother wrote stories for women's magazines as Emmie Allingham. Margery's aunt, Maud Hughes, also ran a magazine. Margery earned her first fee at the age of eight, for a story printed in her aunt's magazine.
Soon after Margery's birth, the family left London for Essex. She returned to London in 1920 to attend the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and met her future husband, Philip Youngman Carter. They married in 1928. He was her collaborator and designed the cover jackets for many of her books.
Margery's breakthrough came 1929 with the publication of her second novel, The Crime at Black Dudley . The novel introduced Albert Campion, although only as a minor character. After pressure from her American publishers, Margery brought Campion back for Mystery Mile and continued to use Campion as a character throughout her career.
After a battle with breast cancer, Margery died in 1966. Her husband finished her last novel, A Cargo of Eagles at her request, and published it in 1968.
Also wrote as: Maxwell March
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
June 3, 2024
Allingham was one of the authors of the Golden Age of English detective stories (Campion was her protagonist) and already well into her career when she wrote this non-fiction book. She’d been prompted by her American publisher to educate them and the American public on what it was like to experience war in rural England beginning in 1939. Although she says in an epigraph before the book that it is not propaganda, I think that is disingenuous, especially at first. It begins as a letter to her publisher and his wife and goes on covering the years leading up to war and ending shortly before the U.S. entry after Pearl Harbor.
I can’t see that it would ever have been useful propaganda. By the time it was published the U.S. had joined the war and I don’t know who actually read the book or how popular it was. It’s definitely obscure now. Up until about 60% through, I thought it was generally dull and wandering. Allingham gives her opinions on politics and leadership that are hard for a reader to even understand now.
Early on she expresses some of her own frustrations and irritability in her Essex village about not knowing enough about what was going on. I’m sure that was a widespread feeling. As the war heats up and becomes personal to the village, the book becomes more interesting. She’s at her best when zeroing in on specific stories such as the evacuees from London. The village prepares for and then waits and waits for children to show up. When the evacuees do suddenly turn up on buses one day, they turn out not to be the poor East End children they were prepared for but rather North London suburban wives with large numbers of children, 20 of the women expecting babies soon. This calls for a clinic to be set up on the fly and trying to get small farmers to take on largish families when they had been expecting “nice little girls” and “tough boys.”
Other interesting parts late in the book deal with Junkers who flew over nightly on their way to bomb London, occasionally dropping bombs on their own town. Allingham makes the occasional trip by bus to beleaguered London and reports on damage and high morale.
A book with a similar subject, although set in Italy at this time, is Iris Origo’s A Chill in the Air. That book is much more compact and better written.
I can’t see that it would ever have been useful propaganda. By the time it was published the U.S. had joined the war and I don’t know who actually read the book or how popular it was. It’s definitely obscure now. Up until about 60% through, I thought it was generally dull and wandering. Allingham gives her opinions on politics and leadership that are hard for a reader to even understand now.
Early on she expresses some of her own frustrations and irritability in her Essex village about not knowing enough about what was going on. I’m sure that was a widespread feeling. As the war heats up and becomes personal to the village, the book becomes more interesting. She’s at her best when zeroing in on specific stories such as the evacuees from London. The village prepares for and then waits and waits for children to show up. When the evacuees do suddenly turn up on buses one day, they turn out not to be the poor East End children they were prepared for but rather North London suburban wives with large numbers of children, 20 of the women expecting babies soon. This calls for a clinic to be set up on the fly and trying to get small farmers to take on largish families when they had been expecting “nice little girls” and “tough boys.”
Other interesting parts late in the book deal with Junkers who flew over nightly on their way to bomb London, occasionally dropping bombs on their own town. Allingham makes the occasional trip by bus to beleaguered London and reports on damage and high morale.
A book with a similar subject, although set in Italy at this time, is Iris Origo’s A Chill in the Air. That book is much more compact and better written.
June 23, 2024
There's some confusion about this book in the reviews. It's certainly about the lives of villagers during World War Two and how the first year after war was declared affected the village. It's based on real facts and real people. The fictional village in the story is Auburn, but it is actually the real village of Tolleshunt D'arcy in Essex where Margery Allingham lived.
The fascination for me is that I know some of the characters, including my own grandparents. My grandmother worked for Margery Allingham for a couple of years when she was in service.
I've learned things about my grandparents lives during the war that I didn't know anything about.
The fascination for me is that I know some of the characters, including my own grandparents. My grandmother worked for Margery Allingham for a couple of years when she was in service.
I've learned things about my grandparents lives during the war that I didn't know anything about.
January 31, 2018
Mystery author Margery Allingham wrote this as a series of letters to her American publisher just before and during the early part of World War II.
She tells us that it wasn't written as propaganda, but clearly her intent was to have it published in America and hopefully to influence the American people to support the British. There's nothing wrong with this. It was a desperate situation and America's isolationist policy prevented them from giving the British the level of support they needed. So good on her for making the effort.
Allingham gives us a portrait of a small village near the east coast of England confronting a war and all the terrors that it may bring. The threat of invasion and heavy bombing was a very real possibility, forcing Allingham and her neighbors to make decisions about what they would do if the worst happened. Her soul searching is painful to read about. She honestly confronts herself and wonders how she would react if the Germans actually invaded and arrived in her village. Would she fight, run away or hide? In the end she decides to fight but is honest enough to admit that until it really happened, she couldn't be sure if her courage would fail her or not.
Although the village of Auburn (a code name) was quite small, they were anxious to do their bit, preparing for the arrival of ninety child evacuees from the cities. The populace rose to the occasion and plenty of billets were found. As it turned out, when the evacuees arrived, there were 300+ women and small children on the buses, many of the women expectant mothers. How the people of Auburn dealt with the situation and the descriptions of the newcomers and their problems makes for interesting and often funny reading.
When reading this, it's important to remember that Margery Allingham was a staunch Tory countrywoman of the old type. God and country, self reliance, hard work, emotional reticence, self control and knowing one's place were part of her DNA. Some of the things she thought perfectly natural, such as first generation successful people shouldn't move up the class ladder, seem ridiculous to modern minds. She believed it was the second generation in the family, after they had been educated at the right sort of English public school (which would instill in them the proper pride and values fitting them for a higher status) who should move up. She's not being mean or bigoted, she was simply a woman of her time and class. There were a few moments while reading this that I envisioned her as a sort of rural Hyacinth Bucket (It's pronounced Bouquet!)
I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend to anyone interested in the British home front during World War II.
She tells us that it wasn't written as propaganda, but clearly her intent was to have it published in America and hopefully to influence the American people to support the British. There's nothing wrong with this. It was a desperate situation and America's isolationist policy prevented them from giving the British the level of support they needed. So good on her for making the effort.
Allingham gives us a portrait of a small village near the east coast of England confronting a war and all the terrors that it may bring. The threat of invasion and heavy bombing was a very real possibility, forcing Allingham and her neighbors to make decisions about what they would do if the worst happened. Her soul searching is painful to read about. She honestly confronts herself and wonders how she would react if the Germans actually invaded and arrived in her village. Would she fight, run away or hide? In the end she decides to fight but is honest enough to admit that until it really happened, she couldn't be sure if her courage would fail her or not.
Although the village of Auburn (a code name) was quite small, they were anxious to do their bit, preparing for the arrival of ninety child evacuees from the cities. The populace rose to the occasion and plenty of billets were found. As it turned out, when the evacuees arrived, there were 300+ women and small children on the buses, many of the women expectant mothers. How the people of Auburn dealt with the situation and the descriptions of the newcomers and their problems makes for interesting and often funny reading.
When reading this, it's important to remember that Margery Allingham was a staunch Tory countrywoman of the old type. God and country, self reliance, hard work, emotional reticence, self control and knowing one's place were part of her DNA. Some of the things she thought perfectly natural, such as first generation successful people shouldn't move up the class ladder, seem ridiculous to modern minds. She believed it was the second generation in the family, after they had been educated at the right sort of English public school (which would instill in them the proper pride and values fitting them for a higher status) who should move up. She's not being mean or bigoted, she was simply a woman of her time and class. There were a few moments while reading this that I envisioned her as a sort of rural Hyacinth Bucket (It's pronounced Bouquet!)
I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend to anyone interested in the British home front during World War II.
June 1, 2023
Interesting account of English country life during the first years of WWII by one of the queens of crime Margery Allingham.
June 2, 2015
A good read evocative of the dark days of the phoney war in England when real worries about invasion and conquest went side by side with managing to live in difficult times materially when most men were away fighting and the women were left to run things locally . I can't think of a better book to describe the times,
September 26, 2025
When mystery author Allingham received the request to let her American friends know what life was like in her tiny village in coastal England at the beginning of WWII, she wrote them letters that were turned into this book. Only slightly fictionalized, this was published in 1941, so the details are fresh and revealing. I was fascinated at how the locals handled the influx of refugees, troops, planes and bombs, as well as the lack of information. If you've ever been interested in what the home front was really like, this will fill you in. It's odd to realize such a book could be a comforting read, but I found the "everyday courage and the stubborn persistence of ordinary spirit" cheered me a great deal.
August 20, 2022
My four-star rating is for the modern edition of The Oaken heart (published 2011) rather than the original 1941 text. This is because that while Allingham's account of life in the lead up to and start of WWII from the perspective of a little East-coast English village is at times extremely evocative and interesting, it is also so vague (partly due to necessary censoring at the time) and filled with dozens of characters generally not properly introduced that I rarely understood who she was talking about and for some reason she insists on lengthy analogies, metaphors and similes that often went on for pages and totally lost me. In the moments when she clearly recounts anecdotes, the book is wonderful, but this is all stuck together in obscure soup. The modern edition has a series of appendices that really add to and clarify the book, including some notes on the text, historical information on the characters, extracts from Allingham's war diary and letters to her sister and a chapter that was originally censored. This adds a lot to the book and really improves it. My only complaint here is that the notes would have been a million times more useful and have made the book infinitely more readable had they been endnotes where you have a little number in the text and you can flip to the back to read an explanation. While reading the book, I over and over thought how much better the book would have been had someone annotated it, only to get to the very end and discover someone DID but they didn't bother putting in the asterisks so that you could look them up as you read. Baffling decision. Anyway, definitely an interesting read if you are in to British Home Front stuff.
September 12, 2022
Overall, I found this book to be amazing.
I must admit that the fact that all the names (of places and people) are pseudonyms, and that people are talked about without being introduced or given context (so one is confused about who they are) are both strikes against this book. The frequent mild confusion I experienced while reading led to me giving it 4 stars.
However, this book was completed at the beginning of 1941, and published a few months later. It is a contemporaneous account of life in a small Essex village, 30 miles from London, at the very beginning of World War II in England. This book was not written from the viewpoint of post-war hindsight.
It's really remarkable to follow the ups and downs of small-town people as the war approached and then began. Ms. Allingham and her fellow villagers took in evacuees, and prepared for potential bombing and invasion. When the blitz began, they lived with occasional bombs in the neighborhood, as well as witnessing the distant London skies lit up nightly. Ms. Allingham made a few visits to London (she had to get one of her Albert Campion books to the publisher, among other things!), so the reader gets her impressions of the changing reality of life there.
Anyone who is interested in a first-hand account of the British home front in early WWII should enjoy this book. I believe it is unique in being written and published so early in the war, which is truly remarkable.
I must admit that the fact that all the names (of places and people) are pseudonyms, and that people are talked about without being introduced or given context (so one is confused about who they are) are both strikes against this book. The frequent mild confusion I experienced while reading led to me giving it 4 stars.
However, this book was completed at the beginning of 1941, and published a few months later. It is a contemporaneous account of life in a small Essex village, 30 miles from London, at the very beginning of World War II in England. This book was not written from the viewpoint of post-war hindsight.
It's really remarkable to follow the ups and downs of small-town people as the war approached and then began. Ms. Allingham and her fellow villagers took in evacuees, and prepared for potential bombing and invasion. When the blitz began, they lived with occasional bombs in the neighborhood, as well as witnessing the distant London skies lit up nightly. Ms. Allingham made a few visits to London (she had to get one of her Albert Campion books to the publisher, among other things!), so the reader gets her impressions of the changing reality of life there.
Anyone who is interested in a first-hand account of the British home front in early WWII should enjoy this book. I believe it is unique in being written and published so early in the war, which is truly remarkable.
April 21, 2021
I found this book having seen it mentioned in in an English mystery I was reading . Having spent three years at a RAF base near Ipswich in East Anglia I was familiar with most of Albert Campion’s book locations and developed a strong liking for the English people. I am also very interested in the history of the world War one and two years. It took a little while to get into the flow of the book, but thoroughly enjoyed the book and was fascinated by it. It showed me how limited my knowledge and understanding of the resolve of the English people and the conditions they faced. I went back and reread one of the 1940 Campion books now knowing the conditions under which she was writing it. A total surprise.
June 26, 2022
What I really got out of this book was how I've not understood the timeline of World War 2. England, all of Europe was in a war for over 2 years before Pearl Harbor.
Hitler's invasions of various countries was not back to back. First, Czech then Poland but Belgium, Low Countries and France happened much later.
I did not realize there was an evacuation in 1939 a year before the Blitz of London. The blitz was not until May of 1940 and lasted 6 months before Hitler decided to head to Russia.
We are watching Foyle's War (fantastic series) so the timing was really good reading this book.
Hitler's invasions of various countries was not back to back. First, Czech then Poland but Belgium, Low Countries and France happened much later.
I did not realize there was an evacuation in 1939 a year before the Blitz of London. The blitz was not until May of 1940 and lasted 6 months before Hitler decided to head to Russia.
We are watching Foyle's War (fantastic series) so the timing was really good reading this book.
November 22, 2018
I really enjoy Allingham’s murder mysteries, and was really looking forward to this. I found its pace incredibly slow, wasn’t interested in the quite cliched characters, and feel quite disappointed with it. I gave up after a while.
July 8, 2023
A fascinating glimpse into the life of a small village just north of London in the first two years of World War II. While there are certainly some grim moments, there are also highly amusing passages, as well as very warm and moving ones.
One example was the description of the Flinthammock emergency fire brigade, which was really the Flinthammock and district funeral parlour in a newer and gayer guise. The personnel is the same, and this chameleon changing from black to red, from snail's pace to glorious speed, has a most satisfying quality of poetic justice about it.
Well worth seeking out.
One example was the description of the Flinthammock emergency fire brigade, which was really the Flinthammock and district funeral parlour in a newer and gayer guise. The personnel is the same, and this chameleon changing from black to red, from snail's pace to glorious speed, has a most satisfying quality of poetic justice about it.
Well worth seeking out.
April 25, 2023
A little dry to my tastes, but some very good thoughts in here as well. I need to read something else of Allingham's, perhaps one of her crime novels.
October 17, 2023
2023 bk 261 - A heartfelt book written in epistolary form between the author and her American editors/friends about the first years of WWII and life in an English village. Allingham tells the story of people wanting to do what they need to in preparation for war, but being confused by conflicting stories, instructions, and sometimes no instructions at all. Her home was the center post for the wardens and all efforts so she had a birds eye view of what both the men and women could do. Expecting children to be evacuated to them - the entire community had to do a shift when they were, for them, inundated with pregnant women and woman with small infants - who expected daily clinics, etc. They rose to the challenge admirable. A fascinating insight into England at the time and into the life of this prolific author.
December 7, 2017
Margery Allingham, was already a famous author of classic British detective novels when she wrote this non-fictional, semi-autobiographical account of life her in an English village immediately preceding and during the early part of World War II. The original manuscript for this book started out as a series of letters she wrote to some American friends detailing her increasing involvement in village life during preparation for, and the experience of, war. These activities included the organization and billeting of evacuees, service as a First Aid Commandant, local air raid precautions and various other activities that became necessary as her country, England, got further involved in surviving the hardships caused by being at war.
The reader is treated to the ebb and flow of village life as the seasons turn, the crops are harvested and life is celebrated. The bravery and steadfastness of the British citizen is a reoccurring theme as there is never any doubt that they shall prevail against the enemy no matter how many bombs are dropped, how many men are lost, how much food is rationed or how many hardships must be endured.
One of the true pleasures of reading this publication is in hearing the opinions of an educated and social villager about the experiences and thoughts of the common person as another war became inevitable, and was eventually declared, in Britain. Allingham describes the faith which the population put into Prime minister Chamberlain during the pre-war years and how their faith was so completely shattered when he continued to talk of peace with Germany and made little, or no, attempt to train people, manufacture the required munitions or engage in the myriad of other activities that are so necessary in wartime. For example Allingham describes in detail the debacle of sending thousands of child refugees from London to the countryside months before any fighting was experienced on the island. The reader is informed of the sheer hard work and planning that the volunteers performed, both those who helped to place the children, as well as those who accepted them into their homes. The fact that most refugees had returned home long before the air raids even started in London is just one example of inept planning by Chamberlain's government. The joy and relief upon the appointment of Prime minister Winston Churchill and the sensational inspiration his speeches brought to those gathered around their radios is palatable as described by Allingham.
Initially, Allingham's writing in The Oaken Heart is somewhat stilted, similar to that found in a formal essay written by one who is comfortable with the syntax of complex sentence structure and who has an extensive, if somewhat dated, vocabulary. But as the book progresses the author appears to become more at ease and the writing tends to flow as Allingham hits her stride.
A vast array of characters are described throughout this war time tale. The village of Auburn is populated with all the classic characters the reader has come to expect in the English village -- elderly spinster sisters, church ladies, shop keepers, publicans, and a vast array of military types from Air Raid Wardens to Commissioned Officers. Yet the central character in this historical tale is actually the village of Auburn – steadfast and trustworthy.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of WWII, especially as experienced by the British.
April 12, 2018
Having read several of Margery Allingham’s detective novels, I was intrigued to come across The Oaken Heart, an account of life in her small English village during the Second World War. Originally published in 1941, it was apparently based on letters written to some American friends and expanded into a book at the suggestion of her publisher. It’s interesting to think that she was writing this while the war was still taking place and when nobody knew how much longer it would last or what the outcome would be.
Allingham’s village was Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Essex, but she refers to it in the book as ‘Auburn’ after a line from the poem The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith. She is obviously very proud of Auburn and the way the people who live there work together to cope with whatever the war throws at them; it’s true that all towns and villages have their own unique characteristics, but I think it’s also true that the wartime experiences of the residents of Auburn will have been similar to the experiences of people in other parts of Britain.
Like many other villages, Auburn, in 1938 when the book opens, is still suffering from the effects of the previous war which ended just twenty years earlier. There’s a sense that Allingham and her friends are putting all their faith in Neville Chamberlain, not really believing or wanting to believe that war could possibly happen again. Of course, it does happen again – after a year of preparations, gas mask distributions and discussions of who should take in how many evacuees. The subject of evacuees is an important one to the people of Auburn; at first they are excited at the thought of groups of little schoolchildren from London arriving in the village (since the First World War there has been a shortage of young people in Auburn), but the reality is very different – hundreds of young mothers and babies! Allingham’s descriptions of the newcomers, the culture differences and how the villagers dealt with all of this are quite funny to read about.
I have never read anything about Margery Allingham as a person before, so I don’t know what she was supposed to be like or what impression the people who knew her had of her, but based on her own words in The Oaken Heart, she seems very likeable and down-to-earth. She makes a few references to her writing career now and then (she was working on Traitor’s Purse at the time), but there is never any sense of self-importance or superiority over anyone else in the village. Her writing style is warm, conversational and, as you would expect, very readable.
This is a wonderful book, which I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading about life during the war. The fact that it is a first-hand account written in 1941 rather than a memoir written years later gives it another layer of interest. As we reach the final page, there is still no end to the war in sight and nobody has any idea if or when it’s all going to stop. I was sorry that the book ended when it did, as I would have liked to have continued reading about the people of Auburn and to find out how they fared later in the war.
Allingham’s village was Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Essex, but she refers to it in the book as ‘Auburn’ after a line from the poem The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith. She is obviously very proud of Auburn and the way the people who live there work together to cope with whatever the war throws at them; it’s true that all towns and villages have their own unique characteristics, but I think it’s also true that the wartime experiences of the residents of Auburn will have been similar to the experiences of people in other parts of Britain.
Like many other villages, Auburn, in 1938 when the book opens, is still suffering from the effects of the previous war which ended just twenty years earlier. There’s a sense that Allingham and her friends are putting all their faith in Neville Chamberlain, not really believing or wanting to believe that war could possibly happen again. Of course, it does happen again – after a year of preparations, gas mask distributions and discussions of who should take in how many evacuees. The subject of evacuees is an important one to the people of Auburn; at first they are excited at the thought of groups of little schoolchildren from London arriving in the village (since the First World War there has been a shortage of young people in Auburn), but the reality is very different – hundreds of young mothers and babies! Allingham’s descriptions of the newcomers, the culture differences and how the villagers dealt with all of this are quite funny to read about.
I have never read anything about Margery Allingham as a person before, so I don’t know what she was supposed to be like or what impression the people who knew her had of her, but based on her own words in The Oaken Heart, she seems very likeable and down-to-earth. She makes a few references to her writing career now and then (she was working on Traitor’s Purse at the time), but there is never any sense of self-importance or superiority over anyone else in the village. Her writing style is warm, conversational and, as you would expect, very readable.
This is a wonderful book, which I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading about life during the war. The fact that it is a first-hand account written in 1941 rather than a memoir written years later gives it another layer of interest. As we reach the final page, there is still no end to the war in sight and nobody has any idea if or when it’s all going to stop. I was sorry that the book ended when it did, as I would have liked to have continued reading about the people of Auburn and to find out how they fared later in the war.
July 31, 2022
The Oaken Heart - Allingham
Audio performance by Georgina Sutton
3 stars
Marjorie Allingham was already a well known mystery writer as England entered WW2. This memoir was commissioned by an American publisher before the United States entered the war. The intent was to give a first person account of the war’s impact on a typical English village. Although the author makes a point of saying that she is not intending to write war propaganda, (just a letter to others who may face something similar in the near future), There’s clear pro-British propaganda value in her mildly amusing anecdotes.
The tone of this memoir is very similar to the fictional The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Day to day concerns and quirky village characters create a light tone set against the larger reality. Allingham begins in the months before the declaration of war. The book was published in 1941. She speaks mostly of the ever changing adaptations to village life; rationing, blackouts, first aid preparations, and the accommodation of hundreds of evacuees.
She has some interesting thoughts about the ambiguous position of her own generation; too young for the first war, too old for the second. Her political opinions are fairly muddled and she says more than once that many things about the war will not be understood until it’s over. The book was apparently developed from a series of letters written to her American friends. She refers to friends and family in a way that assumes a previous familiarity, and I found myself getting completely lost in the ridiculous nicknames. I have no doubt that she described actual situations but I felt the author’s touch in the depiction of Auburn citizens as ‘characters’ in a story.
Audio performance by Georgina Sutton
3 stars
Marjorie Allingham was already a well known mystery writer as England entered WW2. This memoir was commissioned by an American publisher before the United States entered the war. The intent was to give a first person account of the war’s impact on a typical English village. Although the author makes a point of saying that she is not intending to write war propaganda, (just a letter to others who may face something similar in the near future), There’s clear pro-British propaganda value in her mildly amusing anecdotes.
The tone of this memoir is very similar to the fictional The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Day to day concerns and quirky village characters create a light tone set against the larger reality. Allingham begins in the months before the declaration of war. The book was published in 1941. She speaks mostly of the ever changing adaptations to village life; rationing, blackouts, first aid preparations, and the accommodation of hundreds of evacuees.
She has some interesting thoughts about the ambiguous position of her own generation; too young for the first war, too old for the second. Her political opinions are fairly muddled and she says more than once that many things about the war will not be understood until it’s over. The book was apparently developed from a series of letters written to her American friends. She refers to friends and family in a way that assumes a previous familiarity, and I found myself getting completely lost in the ridiculous nicknames. I have no doubt that she described actual situations but I felt the author’s touch in the depiction of Auburn citizens as ‘characters’ in a story.
December 16, 2017
Written in diary form, this auto-biographical novel describes the build up and beginning of the the Second World War from the viewpoint of a country dwelling woman. It is fascinating to read her inner thoughts and feelings about the countries preparation for war, and the local plans that were put in place in her village to defeat the Nazis. A true insight into the feelings of the populace as the country stood on the edge waiting for the declaration of war, and then the first two years of the war. The descriptions of the blitz and how the villagers saw London when visiting, are particularly poignant, as are the evacuees and issue of gas masks. The fact that people were frightened to speak on the trains for fear of giving away information to the ever listening enemy! It is heartening to read about the bravery of the ordinary people, all determined to do their bit to protect their small corner of the country. Written with a view to encouraging America to support Britain, I can see how effective this would have been. A fascinating read for anyone interested in this period. Thank you Netgalley for the review copy.
January 3, 2019
This was a gentle, charming account of how a small rural village prepared for the outbreak of war and then dealt with its practicalities. It's very charming and evocative, as you'd expect from a writer like Margery Allingham.
Between the wonderful descriptions of nature and the passing year and the fantastic depictions of the many slightly eccentric villagers, its both a lovely, if slightly winding read, and an amazing resource for anyone wanting to know more about how those 'at home' dealt with the advent of WW2. I found for example the parts where they were waiting for Chamberlain to declare war, the organisation of evacuees and the dispersal of gas masks all very poignant; it must have been terrifying.
Between the wonderful descriptions of nature and the passing year and the fantastic depictions of the many slightly eccentric villagers, its both a lovely, if slightly winding read, and an amazing resource for anyone wanting to know more about how those 'at home' dealt with the advent of WW2. I found for example the parts where they were waiting for Chamberlain to declare war, the organisation of evacuees and the dispersal of gas masks all very poignant; it must have been terrifying.
August 25, 2016
Not what I thought it would be. This was written in first person and was the opinion of the author about what the mood and feelings were in her British village before and during WW II. I thought she would delve more into the lives of the village characters much like the book The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society did. But I was very wrong. It was very hard to follow with the British syntax and sayings.
October 4, 2023
What could have been a fascinating look at the beginning of World War II as experienced in the countryside, rather than London, was spoiled by the verbose, self-satisfied style of the author. Meandering, full of incomprehensible references and abbreviations, and - worst of all - dull.
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June 7, 2020In the catalogue of her work and that of Youngman-Carter (her husband and collaborator at times) Oaken Heart tells it with all the perspicacity and the personal feeling of someone of her generation. She was no normal person of her generation, however, a very singular spirit. Also she was someone who was capable of exercising, at times, a quite forensic precision. A precision that, nevertheless, did not have the almost inhuman characterisations of Christie. Though, like Christie's world Allingham's world was not quite religious or conventionally orthodox Christian anymore. It was a world where someone might, for reasons of Kantian moral utilitarianism, be on the flower roster at the local C of E, without having the genuine faith of Marsh's Lord Peter Wimsey.
At times her characters, as opposed, I think, to herself as private person, were quite spiritual, and did still believe that there was a very English ghost operating within the very English machine of Empire, Army, the class system, the industrial North, and the other exotic appendages from Ireland to Scotland to London, the Dominions, and the rest. That is the whole panoply of what made up the self-actualising 'Great Britain' that existed prior to the the coup de grace administered to it by the Second War. As soon as Chamberlain's absurd diction has uttered it last cadence in his declaration of war speech on the wireless it was all over, gone forever.
However many of the clearer thinking of her generation, of which she was one, found a new sense of spiritual purpose in definitely not taking the side of the "Guilty Men", the appeasers, the war weary, the crypto-fascists, the admirers of the trains that ran on time on Continental Europe . That is what younger readers, aged under about fifty who could never have experienced Britain still seen as and partly still acting as a major world power cannot possibly understand about Oaken Heart. Allingham has already made the transition back to the Alfred's Wessex by the time she decides to send these letters to her publisher and see them published. She is simply stating the reality that it is now merely a fight for survival, not a fight of one great world power seeking to keep on playing the great game of world politics.
All the people who had brought this greater Britain so low, rendering her able to be destroyed by a lower middle class nutcase sitting in Berlin, are there, in this English village, at least implicitly, as she ruminates on the possibility that we might lose. These defeatists, these early on pro-Appeasers, these others with their heads in the sand, who didn't want to fuss too much over the Jews, or the Pinks or the Reds and nay sense of rights they might need to be given in a civilised country, were all there in this village. These were the local enemies or laggards or holders back of the great defensive crusade were there in the same village. Of course, usually the first to become Air Raid Wardens and the first members of the local Conservative Party, after the war to put up pictures of Churchill in their Conservatories.
They were there using the same ration books, lined-up in the same lines as she lined up in (or her maid lined up in.). They were there along with her household digging their own Anderson shelters, also wondering Mr Chamberlain, who was so immensely popular among Conservative voters had to be replaced by that Falstaff reincarnated Churchill.
We see the gut wrenching realities that lie behind the focused positivity in Allingham's depiction of the ancient heart of Merry England rousing itself again, with all its Falstaffian contractions, to once again go the breach.
Interestingly, in other reviews on this site, some young, mostly Gen X, Y and younger readers, say they find her book boring - But what Allingham was also saying to her US publisher was- 'I wish women could do bit more of the fighting, as if we could, we might damn well just add that bit extra that is needed to keep the fight going'.
Its a pity some younger female readers do not understand what total war is all about - as this war was at that time, a total war for civilisation, a total war for a future of a civilisation where women might one day be allowed to find their voice too (not just exceptional women like her.)
I find all of this either written explicitly or able to be read, in between the lines, in this classical exposition of the exact opposite of the Little England nonsense that has created Brexit. A milieu of nonsense that is in grave danger of rendering Britain into the parody of a nation that it would have become in 1940. That is had Lord Halifax and the majority of the sitting MP's of the Conservative and Unionist Party got their way over negotiations with Mussolini. Then there would have been no Oaken Heart only its absence.
At times her characters, as opposed, I think, to herself as private person, were quite spiritual, and did still believe that there was a very English ghost operating within the very English machine of Empire, Army, the class system, the industrial North, and the other exotic appendages from Ireland to Scotland to London, the Dominions, and the rest. That is the whole panoply of what made up the self-actualising 'Great Britain' that existed prior to the the coup de grace administered to it by the Second War. As soon as Chamberlain's absurd diction has uttered it last cadence in his declaration of war speech on the wireless it was all over, gone forever.
However many of the clearer thinking of her generation, of which she was one, found a new sense of spiritual purpose in definitely not taking the side of the "Guilty Men", the appeasers, the war weary, the crypto-fascists, the admirers of the trains that ran on time on Continental Europe . That is what younger readers, aged under about fifty who could never have experienced Britain still seen as and partly still acting as a major world power cannot possibly understand about Oaken Heart. Allingham has already made the transition back to the Alfred's Wessex by the time she decides to send these letters to her publisher and see them published. She is simply stating the reality that it is now merely a fight for survival, not a fight of one great world power seeking to keep on playing the great game of world politics.
All the people who had brought this greater Britain so low, rendering her able to be destroyed by a lower middle class nutcase sitting in Berlin, are there, in this English village, at least implicitly, as she ruminates on the possibility that we might lose. These defeatists, these early on pro-Appeasers, these others with their heads in the sand, who didn't want to fuss too much over the Jews, or the Pinks or the Reds and nay sense of rights they might need to be given in a civilised country, were all there in this village. These were the local enemies or laggards or holders back of the great defensive crusade were there in the same village. Of course, usually the first to become Air Raid Wardens and the first members of the local Conservative Party, after the war to put up pictures of Churchill in their Conservatories.
They were there using the same ration books, lined-up in the same lines as she lined up in (or her maid lined up in.). They were there along with her household digging their own Anderson shelters, also wondering Mr Chamberlain, who was so immensely popular among Conservative voters had to be replaced by that Falstaff reincarnated Churchill.
We see the gut wrenching realities that lie behind the focused positivity in Allingham's depiction of the ancient heart of Merry England rousing itself again, with all its Falstaffian contractions, to once again go the breach.
Interestingly, in other reviews on this site, some young, mostly Gen X, Y and younger readers, say they find her book boring - But what Allingham was also saying to her US publisher was- 'I wish women could do bit more of the fighting, as if we could, we might damn well just add that bit extra that is needed to keep the fight going'.
Its a pity some younger female readers do not understand what total war is all about - as this war was at that time, a total war for civilisation, a total war for a future of a civilisation where women might one day be allowed to find their voice too (not just exceptional women like her.)
I find all of this either written explicitly or able to be read, in between the lines, in this classical exposition of the exact opposite of the Little England nonsense that has created Brexit. A milieu of nonsense that is in grave danger of rendering Britain into the parody of a nation that it would have become in 1940. That is had Lord Halifax and the majority of the sitting MP's of the Conservative and Unionist Party got their way over negotiations with Mussolini. Then there would have been no Oaken Heart only its absence.
June 2, 2022
Well. I can't believe I stuck through this entire book. I admit I fast-forwarded (I'm listening rather than reading) through the long, long section on the wonder of Winston Churchill and my attention wandered innumerable times. Oh, how does this woman love the sound of her own voice.
If she had stuck to her experiences, the memoir would have been interesting. Her experience with the refugees was well described, and there were many interesting details of how people stood up to the stress and noise. For instance, she recounts how one soldier stationed in the country visited his mother in London during the blitz and felt a coward compared to her nonchalant reactions to the whole house shaking and furniture flying around during the bombings, and his father used to stand on the doorstep and watch the bombs and comment about where they came down. These were experiences that offered new perspectives and were welcome.
Unfortunately, Ms Allingham felt the need to tell us about human nature at great length, repeatedly, and let us know that good working class people are happy with the class system, and that Germans and Italians are horrible, detestable people. The section on Italians was just confusing; apparently I'm supposed to "understand" something about them, and I have no idea what she's talking about. I've had similar interactions with racists who say things to me like "you know what they're like" about Black people and I just shake my head no, I don't. I really don't, and don't talk to me anymore. It's also punctuated with casually racist sayings, like "worked like a Black," and "quiet as a Chinaman" (which I had never heard), which is just unpleasant. And there's lots of times where she uses phrases that, if you don't know to what she's referring, make absolutely no sense. For instance, she mentions Roosevelt's garden hose and rambles on about it. I knew she was referring to Roosevelt advocating the lend-lease program by saying in a famous speech "Suppose my neighbor's house catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose. I don't say, 'Neighbor, my hose cost me $15, you have to pay..." But if I didn't, the whole passage would have made no sense. And there were several passages that I found myself saying "what on earth is she rambling about."
I think this would have been a good book if someone had taken a big red pencil and edited out fully three quarters of it, chiefly the parts with Ms. Allingham revealing herself in them.
If she had stuck to her experiences, the memoir would have been interesting. Her experience with the refugees was well described, and there were many interesting details of how people stood up to the stress and noise. For instance, she recounts how one soldier stationed in the country visited his mother in London during the blitz and felt a coward compared to her nonchalant reactions to the whole house shaking and furniture flying around during the bombings, and his father used to stand on the doorstep and watch the bombs and comment about where they came down. These were experiences that offered new perspectives and were welcome.
Unfortunately, Ms Allingham felt the need to tell us about human nature at great length, repeatedly, and let us know that good working class people are happy with the class system, and that Germans and Italians are horrible, detestable people. The section on Italians was just confusing; apparently I'm supposed to "understand" something about them, and I have no idea what she's talking about. I've had similar interactions with racists who say things to me like "you know what they're like" about Black people and I just shake my head no, I don't. I really don't, and don't talk to me anymore. It's also punctuated with casually racist sayings, like "worked like a Black," and "quiet as a Chinaman" (which I had never heard), which is just unpleasant. And there's lots of times where she uses phrases that, if you don't know to what she's referring, make absolutely no sense. For instance, she mentions Roosevelt's garden hose and rambles on about it. I knew she was referring to Roosevelt advocating the lend-lease program by saying in a famous speech "Suppose my neighbor's house catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose. I don't say, 'Neighbor, my hose cost me $15, you have to pay..." But if I didn't, the whole passage would have made no sense. And there were several passages that I found myself saying "what on earth is she rambling about."
I think this would have been a good book if someone had taken a big red pencil and edited out fully three quarters of it, chiefly the parts with Ms. Allingham revealing herself in them.
March 28, 2023
Es wurde viel darüber geschrieben, wie im zweiten Weltkrieg die Städte in Großbritannien zerstört wurden und wie das Leben der Menschen unter diesen Bedingungen aussah. Aber was war mit den Dörfern, die ebenfalls vom Krieg betroffen waren? Wie sah das Leben dort aus, wohin Frauen und Kinder aus den Städten evakuiert wurden und deren Männer ebenfalls in den Krieg ziehen mussten? Die britische Krimiautorin Margery Allingham gibt in ihren Briefen n ihren amerikanischen Verleger einen Bericht aus einem kleinen Ort während dieser Zeit.
Auch wenn Margery Allingham das Dorf Auburn nennt, ist es doch ihr Heimatort Tolleshunt D’Arcy, in dem sich die Ereignisse abspielen, von denen sie berichtet. Es ist die Geschichte von Menschen, die angesichts dessen, was auf sie zukommen wird, überfordert sind und vielleicht deshalb in ihren Planungen ein wenig übers Ziel hinausschießen. Deshalb kommt es zu einigen fast schon komischen Begegnungen gerade zu Anfang dieser Zeit. Die ersten Frauen und Kinder, die nach Auburn evakuiert werden, waren von dem, was sie in Auburn vorfanden, wahrscheinlich genauso überfordert wie die Bewohner von Auburn selbst.
Die Menschen haben mit der Zeit dazu gelernt, was sie auch tun mussten. Denn die Unterstützung von Behörden haben sie nur wenig bekommen. Erst, als die Dinge fast rund liefen, kamen die ersten Offiziellen nach Auburn und gaben Ratschläge, die schon lange vor ihrer Ankunft umgesetzt wurden.
Auch wenn Auburn nicht weit von London entfernt war, kam mir der Ort über weite Strecken der Geschichte wie ein friedvoller kleiner Hafen inmitten allem Chaos vor. Margery Allingham hat den Ton in ihrem Bericht bewusst leicht gehalten und hauptsächlich von den wenig schlimmen Dingen berichtet. Auch als Dorfbewohner nach London gefahren sind, waren diese Berichte durchweg heiter. Deshalb konnte ich mir kein wirkliches Bild von den Geschehnissen und der Stimmung in Auburn machen. Das hat mich ein wenig gestört, denn ich hatte einen ehrlicheren und weniger geschönten Bericht erwartet. Ich habe zu wenig davon erfahren, wie sich die Menschen wirklich gefühlt haben.
Auch wenn Margery Allingham das Dorf Auburn nennt, ist es doch ihr Heimatort Tolleshunt D’Arcy, in dem sich die Ereignisse abspielen, von denen sie berichtet. Es ist die Geschichte von Menschen, die angesichts dessen, was auf sie zukommen wird, überfordert sind und vielleicht deshalb in ihren Planungen ein wenig übers Ziel hinausschießen. Deshalb kommt es zu einigen fast schon komischen Begegnungen gerade zu Anfang dieser Zeit. Die ersten Frauen und Kinder, die nach Auburn evakuiert werden, waren von dem, was sie in Auburn vorfanden, wahrscheinlich genauso überfordert wie die Bewohner von Auburn selbst.
Die Menschen haben mit der Zeit dazu gelernt, was sie auch tun mussten. Denn die Unterstützung von Behörden haben sie nur wenig bekommen. Erst, als die Dinge fast rund liefen, kamen die ersten Offiziellen nach Auburn und gaben Ratschläge, die schon lange vor ihrer Ankunft umgesetzt wurden.
Auch wenn Auburn nicht weit von London entfernt war, kam mir der Ort über weite Strecken der Geschichte wie ein friedvoller kleiner Hafen inmitten allem Chaos vor. Margery Allingham hat den Ton in ihrem Bericht bewusst leicht gehalten und hauptsächlich von den wenig schlimmen Dingen berichtet. Auch als Dorfbewohner nach London gefahren sind, waren diese Berichte durchweg heiter. Deshalb konnte ich mir kein wirkliches Bild von den Geschehnissen und der Stimmung in Auburn machen. Das hat mich ein wenig gestört, denn ich hatte einen ehrlicheren und weniger geschönten Bericht erwartet. Ich habe zu wenig davon erfahren, wie sich die Menschen wirklich gefühlt haben.
April 23, 2025
Our heart is old and hard and true still, in spite of surface rot.
(3.5 stars rounded up) The 1941 publication date prompted me to read this memoir*. The outcome of WW2 was unknown. Allingham's American publisher —she was a successful crime novelist — asked her to write about the life in rural Essex from shortly before the declaration of war to the present (1941).
Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française has the same pull: her novellas published in 2006 were written concurrent the German invasion and occupation of France before her death in Auschwitz in 1942.
Allingham's memoir would be a good pairing with Foyle's War. It captures the emotions of preparing for an invasion, coping with six busloads of evacuees, conflict among villagers, strewn German airplane parts, and the need to go on living. She asks herself how important freedom is: was it better to die than to be enslaved?
Her last sentences are buoyant: What a period! What an age to have been alive in! O, thank God I was born when I was.
Through the marvel of internet, events the author describes in print are available to view on home movies her sister Joyce made. They had a country feast, this annual jollification, that you can see at Cricket Parties, including appearances by the author. It is a delightful slice of life that Anglophiles would adore.
* This book found me! I was searching for the right kind of audiobooks to propel me on my daily walk: easy but engaging, not too philosophical, winsome. I searched for Naxos audiobooks. Libby includes zero Naxos audiobooks; Hoopla 872! Hooray for Hoopla!
(3.5 stars rounded up) The 1941 publication date prompted me to read this memoir*. The outcome of WW2 was unknown. Allingham's American publisher —she was a successful crime novelist — asked her to write about the life in rural Essex from shortly before the declaration of war to the present (1941).
Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française has the same pull: her novellas published in 2006 were written concurrent the German invasion and occupation of France before her death in Auschwitz in 1942.
Allingham's memoir would be a good pairing with Foyle's War. It captures the emotions of preparing for an invasion, coping with six busloads of evacuees, conflict among villagers, strewn German airplane parts, and the need to go on living. She asks herself how important freedom is: was it better to die than to be enslaved?
Her last sentences are buoyant: What a period! What an age to have been alive in! O, thank God I was born when I was.
Through the marvel of internet, events the author describes in print are available to view on home movies her sister Joyce made. They had a country feast, this annual jollification, that you can see at Cricket Parties, including appearances by the author. It is a delightful slice of life that Anglophiles would adore.
* This book found me! I was searching for the right kind of audiobooks to propel me on my daily walk: easy but engaging, not too philosophical, winsome. I searched for Naxos audiobooks. Libby includes zero Naxos audiobooks; Hoopla 872! Hooray for Hoopla!
December 13, 2017
The Oaken Heart was written by a crime novelist to her publisher, describing life in her English village as World War II began. Many interesting tidbits, including the British view of the French. It was their “convinced opinion that the Frenchies were always prepared to fight on any provocation, it being in their nature.”
The British were quick with contingencies. Gas masks were delivered before the war spread to England. Cards on everyone listed how many rooms in their homes, how many occupants, and how many evacuees they could accommodate. The villagers were surprised to discover the evacuees’ children were not toilet trained; what was wrong with city girls?
Many folk felt they had done their bit in the last war and shouldn’t be called upon to do much this time. The WWI vets were angry, believing they’d seen to Europe’s safety and now they were fighting again? Many believed Hitler was all talk, only bluffing and would back down.
The dogfights taking place high overhead in the blue sky were beautiful, with the planes’ white trails like bridal veils.
Despite the interesting nuggets, this was a hard book to read. It rambles. The author suddenly goes off on a tangent, leaving the reader wondering what’s going on. Some things are touched on so vaguely, perhaps due to wartime censoring. I skimmed through a lot.
I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.
August 26, 2024
Amazingly uninteresting
I enjoy reading books written during World War II, instead of novels written about World War II, so as I am currently reading Albert Champion I thought this would give me a insight into Margery Allingham. Not so much. A large portion of this book is actually about her experiences as a teenager during World War I. It takes forever and a LOT of words to get to the second World War. I counted 57, yes, 57, words in one sentence around the middle of this story. It's not a tale of the daily life of her village during the war, but a seemingly endless recitation of her thoughts about what might be happening, what could be happening, etc., etc. She views her village as one being, one person. Everyone thinks the same, feels the same, even acts the same. I am really happy that her Albert Campion books are much, much better.
If you like novels written during the war, D.E. Stevenson has some great choices. Henrietta's War and Henrietta Carries On are two excellent books. Carola Oman has a couple of great books also. Good hunting to you, this book is not a great catch :)
I enjoy reading books written during World War II, instead of novels written about World War II, so as I am currently reading Albert Champion I thought this would give me a insight into Margery Allingham. Not so much. A large portion of this book is actually about her experiences as a teenager during World War I. It takes forever and a LOT of words to get to the second World War. I counted 57, yes, 57, words in one sentence around the middle of this story. It's not a tale of the daily life of her village during the war, but a seemingly endless recitation of her thoughts about what might be happening, what could be happening, etc., etc. She views her village as one being, one person. Everyone thinks the same, feels the same, even acts the same. I am really happy that her Albert Campion books are much, much better.
If you like novels written during the war, D.E. Stevenson has some great choices. Henrietta's War and Henrietta Carries On are two excellent books. Carola Oman has a couple of great books also. Good hunting to you, this book is not a great catch :)
November 7, 2023
This is a rather wordy account of the life of an English village as it prepared for war, and how its life changed after September 1939. I found it rather boring overall, but it was an interesting experience reading her account against the backdrop of the current Hamas-Israel war. She describes the flyovers of German planes, and seeing the glow of London burning a few miles away; in central Israel, most evenings we have had rocket barrages from Gaza.
One of the things that struck me was the general secularism she describes. There was a church in the village, but no mention of special services or prayers; mostly she goes on about a very British faith in being British, and the general wisdom of people living in the country (as opposed somewhat to city dwellers).
Despite being rather tedious to get through, I'm glad I read it. It does not, however, encourage me to seek out her popular mysteries and thrillers, alas.
One of the things that struck me was the general secularism she describes. There was a church in the village, but no mention of special services or prayers; mostly she goes on about a very British faith in being British, and the general wisdom of people living in the country (as opposed somewhat to city dwellers).
Despite being rather tedious to get through, I'm glad I read it. It does not, however, encourage me to seek out her popular mysteries and thrillers, alas.
July 30, 2019
Hmmm. I found this alternatively interesting, exasperating and boring. It is, to begin with, an oddity, a series of letters to her US publisher, partly because she wants to tell the story of her village life throughout WWII, partly because her publisher is someone she needs to stay in touch with - and partly as propaganda, persuasion that Britain is noble as well as for the US to enter the War.
As one privileged, somewhat educated woman’s view of village life and attitudes it is interesting but rather too detailed and marred by the propaganda purpose. I’m an admirer of British stoicism and values, but I could have done with a bit more analysis. Opinion won’t suffice over the period of time covered.
It remains of some historical interest because it provides evidence of rural life in Britain during WWII, and of Allingham’s attitudes and beliefs.
As one privileged, somewhat educated woman’s view of village life and attitudes it is interesting but rather too detailed and marred by the propaganda purpose. I’m an admirer of British stoicism and values, but I could have done with a bit more analysis. Opinion won’t suffice over the period of time covered.
It remains of some historical interest because it provides evidence of rural life in Britain during WWII, and of Allingham’s attitudes and beliefs.
March 27, 2023
Miss Allingham provided a picture of rural England during the war. This is information that I had not had before and was wonderfully instructive. One never realizes how war news was not prevalent to the general population as much was determined to remain secret. It was helpful to see how the entire country could be lead in any direction and not really know what was happening. I think it should help us understand how rulers can perpetuate horrendous deeds without those being governed knowing or having a voice in the matter. It is a well written book and should be an excellent resource for World War II students.
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