Spam Tomorrow

by Verily Anderson

When I asked the local chemist for lint and disinfectant, he felt it was only fair to allow the first-aid post to claim me. . . . Half a dozen V.A.D.s made a rush at me and treated my small abrasion as though my whole head had been blown off.

From an impromptu wedding in the early days of World War II, to a bout with German measles in a hospital reminiscent of a medieval torture chamber, to becoming the first casualty for over-eager V.A.D.s, Verily Anderson’s war gets off to a bumpy start. And it doesn’t get easier.

In this acclaimed memoir, we follow the inimitable Verily and her husband Donald through all the vicissitudes of war, including the unforgettable birth of Verily’s first child in the midst of a German bombing raid. By turns hilarious, poignant, and harrowing (and sometimes all three at once), Spam Tomorrow presents a rollicking view of home front life from the perspective of one strong, courageous, and very funny participant.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, World War II, Humor, 20th Century, History, Autobiography

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Born in 1915, Verily Bruce Anderson was the daughter of a clergyman (the Rev. Rosslyn Bruce), and was educated at Edgbaston High School for Girls, Birmingham, and Normanhurst School, Sussex. She studied at the Royal College of Music, in London, and worked in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry from 1939 to 1941. In 1940, she married Captain Donald Anderson, and had five children - one son and four daughters. In addition to her children's books - most notably, the "Brownie" series - she wrote a number of volumes of autobiography, and worked for the BBC from 1946 through 2002. She died in 2010.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly delightful!! Funny, charming, and so slapdash. Verily can live in chaos in a way that would drive me into Bedlam but I loved reading about it. 😂 Donald is a gem. I love Verily’s mom and friend Julie too. Thank you Jen for recommending this to me! It was a perfect read for Dean Street December.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable memoir of the Home Front, which begins with Verily marrying playwright, Donald, who spends his war at the Ministry of Information (incidentally where George Orwell worked at the same time).

Verily’s writing style is light and engaging. She does touch of disturbing events, such as the death of friends and family and her young daughter’s distress during the Blitz, but, for the main part, this is a wartime romp, of make do, mend and cope. In fact, it can be a little jarring to hear that Hank, the friendly, US serviceman, who always turned up with a bottle of booze, died three days after landing in Normandy, or reading of illnesses or distressing incidents, so light is the overall tone.

Saying that, this is a really good glimpse into life during wartime and it is interesting to note that, even though Donald did not go abroad, the couple still spent half of the war separated, as he worked in London and she often decamped to the country with her young daughters. Generally, Verily is so upbeat, that you feel no trauma will get her down for long, and she is excellent company. I am glad I read this and would like to read more by her.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of living through WW2.

This is Verily Anderson's account of life on the home front during WW2. She starts off as a F.A.N.Y. but shortly after gets married. Her husband, Donald is unable to fight abroad so he joins the Ministry of Information. Verily initially moves to London to be with him, once the Blitz starts, she heads for the country with her children. She seems to spend the war moving to and fro. There is a large cast of characters and it is sometimes hard to keep track of who is who. Sometimes funny, sometimes touching. I would like to try and read more of her memoirs, but they are less easy to find.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 A non-stop roller coaster of activity on the home front!

This wartime memoir by Verily Anderson grabbed me from the very first page until the (wonderfully satisfying) last sentence. At first, I thought that Ms. Anderson's writing was all-over-the-place and had my head reeling...but...once you get into the rhythm and pace of her thoughts and writing style, it was a joy to read.

To me, the life of Verily, her family, her friends (and then later with her husband, Donald) reminds me of these other titles:

❊ The humor, flurry, excitement and coziness of the Mrs. Tim series by D.E. Stevenson
❊ A smidge of the satirical and amusing novels, The Benefactress and The Caravaners, by Elizabeth von Arnim
❊ With a touch of Susan Scarlett's slightly silly and irreverent (but also touching) romance novels.

It took me a little while to get used to the author's writing style (maybe 30% in?) but, after that, I flew through the rest of the memoir and I didn't want it to end. There's so much to love, lots to laugh about and a little bit to frustrate in Spam Tomorrow.

If you love wartime memoirs, quirky personalities, almost unbelievably wacky situations and an underlining theme of real life and honest feelings/reactions during the war, this book is for you! I really enjoyed it!

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read plenty of World War II journals over the years but this one stands out as one of the best.
In turns witty, humorous and poignant, it shows the stoic nature of an almost gone generation we probably won’t see the like of again.

At the beginning of chapter one we start with the most wonderfully laid back marriage proposal I’ve ever come across and follow Verily through her joys and travails, reminiscing over her and her family’s early life, to her adventures as a F.A.N.Y nurse, through the dangers of the war on the home front, including the birth of her first baby during an air raid, all the way to VE Day.
Her courage and strength of character shines through braving all manner of dangers.

In Verily’s daughter Rachael’s introduction she mentions her mother’s 142 volumes of diaries kept since she was nine years old. What I wouldn’t give for a peek at those!

Apparently there is a copy of Spam Tomorrow in the Imperial War Museum for the use of researchers, but now we can all read this marvellous book about love and life and death and wartime, and be the better for it.

The Furrowed Middlebrow imprint at Dean Street Press has never failed to please with their inspired gems of books long since out of print, and long may it continue. Definitely a keeper.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this account of Verily’s life in and around London during WWII. I loved the tone of this book and Verily’s character shines through every word. Even in the midst of great horrors and personal tragedies she manages to find moments of humor and joy. I highly recommend.

[Squeak2017 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts at a gallop bringing the reader up to date with the author’s early family life. The action really only begins when she is married and the 1940 Blitz gets underway. The descriptions of daily life in the Blitz are interesting, particularly the initial excitement gradually wearing down into cynicism from the tiredness and inconvenience of the bombings. Air raid shelters, public and private, cheap rents in the most dangerous places or where the owners wished to avoid their property being requisitioned by the Government, fire watching, lack of sleep, transport problems, taxi drivers charging double if the sirens went off en route – only a person who lived through it would be able to tell you these things.

This material could have been edited into a great comic novel had there been an overarching storyline. As a personal memoire, it is still entertaining and written with a feel for the historic times in which the characters lived, but without the focus of any kind of plot it becomes rather a loose bag of anecdotes, usually about child rearing where the doctor is called out for ailment after ailment and then there is another party.

Anderson is a faithful recorder of the times she lived in and has many comic touches, particularly towards the end of the novel when her overdraft prompts her to advertise for paying guests to take holidays in her farmhouse. The guests are by turn demanding, charming, ill mannered, greedy and generally a great inconvenience but they are all met with cheerful good humour and the overdraft is eventually paid.

After the brief country idyll the action returns to London and the war intrudes again like a returning character with doodlebugs and anti-aircraft guns to the fore. The closing scenes in London are of the celebration of VIctory In Europe Day when the war is finally over and the characters can resume their ordinary lives and look to the future.

This is a happy book written with great gusto and a zest for family life. It has a sense of immediacy which envelops the reader in wartime daily life without any self pity or complaining from the author, and this joie de vivre is really what makes the novel such a lovely read.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating memoirs from WW2. Verily starts as a F.A.N.Y recruit, and this book follows her journey of marriage and motherhood in wartime. It is very amusing in parts, such as brother Merlin taking his mother's Pekingese out in the plane to loop the loop, and her endeavours at running a guest house.

I found the sections of treatment of illnesses fascinating, this was pre-penicillin era, so infections had a much higher mortality rate than they do today. Her passages describing her postpartum infection, and subsequent treatment, really made me wince.

For much of the book Verily lives in London, which gives a great insight into life there in WW2. Such as looking at barrage balloons and going into the underground for shelter during an air raid. Very enjoyable writing.

[Karen (Living Unabridged) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rollicking fun despite a realistic depiction of WW2 in London (and its environs). The section on giving birth in a maternity hospital in the early 1940s made me extremely thankful to live in my own time even more than the Blitz and V-2 rocket portions did.

Making a home, making a life, making it through a world crisis...seems increasingly relevant these days. Hope I would write about such times with as much joy and humor as Verily Anderson did.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly entertaining pure fluff. There are many other more interesting and more substantive British-homefront-memoirs out there.

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful!

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review: https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Verily Anderson shares her memories of life during the early years of WWII. The Blitz, American servicemen, strange lodgers and food shortages all feature as Verily and her husband Donald find ways of getting by.

This is an enjoyable memoir - Verily has a cheerful and witty writing style which is very engaging, and the reader quickly gets to know her family and friends. The best anecdotes are the more detailed ones - her stay in a barbaric fever hospital and her attempts at catering for paying guests are particularly memorable. The early chapters are more disjointed and superficial, so it's worth pushing through those to get to the more substantial episodes.

Verily is from a middle class background and her parents provide a safety net on many occasions, so her brushes with poverty are never particularly convincing, but she does throw herself into things with determination and resilience, and of course the dangers and disasters of the War are present for everyone. Overall, an interesting perspective on life on the Home Front for one charming family.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining, stiff-upper-lip wartime memoir which is particularly illuminating about the domestic aspects of women's lives during WW2. Anderson is an engaging figure and her tales of wartime pregnancy, housing horrors, unlikely friendships with American soldiers, are absorbing ones.

[Bless Your Memory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author kept 142 diaries of her life!!! This memoir was so engaging about WW2 with her family and friends!

[Mrs]

A memoir of Verily’s life during WW2, a short time in the FANY, getting married, having babies (more than one dreadful experience in a wartime hospital), living through the Blitz and having to move around with her small children. Some of it must have been terrifying but she tells it all with a lightness of touch. She is from a privileged background so there are always people to help her out but she does come across as positive and courageous. A very enjoyable read.

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and easy-to-read book based on the experiences of Verily Anderson before and during World War II. Think Monica Dickens meets EM Delafield, but with some elements of Vera Brittain.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot of books about women set during WWII, but this one was a little different--unlike most of the books I've read where the woman has a husband or sweetheart fighting, her husband isn't able to and does a different sort of war work, so they do get to be a family, at least from time to time. Also, a lot of it takes place in London. I felt that it gave a really interesting picture of what life was like for families during the war and the hardships that people on the home front faced. She is also very honest about her feelings and what it is like to be in bombing raids, etc. My only real complaint is that it is hard to keep track of all of the people she mentions.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verily Anderson's "Spam Tomorrow" though published in 1956, it is autobiographical and starts in 1939 the beginning of WW 2 and is truly an interesting and historical read. Verily and her courtship with her husband Donald and marriage despite the war. I absolutely loved the maternal Verily and hearing about her life. This is indeed tragic for the loss of lives not only unknown but it touches Verily personally with loved ones never to return. Verily has a sense of humor which brings a sometime light side. What disturbs me is to think about the troubles in the world are increasing daily and to think how London has changed so much that it is no longer the London of the past!
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“It must be for our honeymoon,” I said thoughtfully, putting on the pyjamas I had borrowed from Beryl. I told her about Donald and how I hoped to marry him tomorrow. “Do the family know?” She was most intrigued.
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“They’ve met him. They don’t think he’s suitable.” “Why? Is he divorced?” Beryl’s blue eyes looked even bigger than usual. “Good heavens, no! It’s just he’s hopeless at making any money. But he’s terribly sweet. Only he’s never thought he was suitable either,” I sighed. “But he does now?” “He must do. I suppose the steady job he’s got at the Ministry makes him suitable. He came out
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of the regular army before the war to write a West End success.”
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Aunt Evie was horrified when she heard next morning what I intended to do. “What will your parents think of me!” she said. “They’ll think
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I was aiding and abetting you. I wish I’d known nothing about it.” I said good-bye to Beryl at the railway station, clutching the trousseau she had so generously bought me, together with a satin-and-lace nightgown which Aunt Evie bought me on the strict understanding that she had nothing more to do with the mad adventure.
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He was buried in our churchyard while Beryl, tiny and sweet in white muslin threaded with

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black ribbons, had a dolls’ tea-party with me under the nursery table. I had planned it reverently on a sober note; but soon it was clear that Beryl, crawling out for a quick dance by herself, had no idea of the solemnity of death. “This is a Highland fling my daddy’s teaching me because his regiment is a little bit Scotch,” she said, and floated about again. She was like a flower. I sat alone under the table, terrified now for her—of what she
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would feel when she found out that her father was dead. The chief interest of the heartless public seemed to be that Beryl’s little brother inherited his father’s title before he was six. It was weeks before Beryl knew. Then at first she was rather relieved. Associating his disappearance with the arrival of stern policemen, she had feared that he had been taken to prison.
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As soon as I was in the room he walked past me and locked the door, putting the key into his pocket. He waved to the piano. “Play, please.” I sat down and played the Chopin waltz I had prepared for my dotty old lady. “Can’t you play something with a tune?” he said. “‘The Bluebells of Scotland’ is nice.” I played ‘The
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Bluebells of Scotland’, trying to sound as much like a musical-box as possible, and I could see he was well pleased. “Good,” he said; “now come and sit down for a talk. I want someone who can sew on my buttons and keep me proper company—not a girl who keeps running out to post letters. In fact you would have to agree never to go out without me—never. But I have many interests, cricket for instance, and crime. Have a glass of wine?” “No, thank you,” I said, looking nervously towards the locked door.
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He handed me a copy of the News of the World in which every connection with crime had been marked with a red cross. I felt a wild desire to rush to the locked door and batter on it. “If I find I like you,” I heard behind me, “then I take you back to India and you have many horses to ride and cars to drive—Rolls Royces
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only. But you must not want to come back. That would not be fair to me.” It was not the horses and the Rolls Royces that made me say what I did, but an extraordinary trait in my character, which always makes me do everything in my power to land any job I apply for, however unsuitable I am for it, or it for me. Perhaps the many jobs I had already lost had some bearing on it, or possibly it is merely a simple inability to say no to anything. “I’ll do it,” I said
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I loved how Verily loved all children. All the loss of lives and the American Hank dying as well as all those brave souls overseas and at the homefront.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spam, that wartime standby, might not be the first choice to name a novel, but this is an eccentric novel of life for one woman and eventually her family in the Second World War. Full of eccentric humour, this book first appeared in 1956, but has more recently been republished by the excellent Dean Street Press in their Furrowed Middlebrow series. Verily Anderson was a prolific writer who kept a diary from childhood, and this book has therefore got all the immediacy of recording events as they happened. Far from a romantic stiff upper lip atmosphere, this book is full of incidents of muddle and confusion, ranging from trying to arrange an instant wedding, through being over treated by enthusiastic volunteers, to the difficulty of getting three tiny children downstairs during a suspected air raid. Full of memorable characters ranging from dodgy lodgers to offhand but secretly thrilled grandmothers, this is wartime life taken at speed. There are points of fear, mainly during serious illness and persistent bombing, but also moments of gentle humour, such as dealing with an ex- Windmill dancer turned drunken Nanny. With a loving but sometimes bewildered husband, Donald, and small children to contend with, this is an all too true story of frequent house moves, illness under fire and the small challenges of living in wartime. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to read this brilliant book, left breathless by its pace, and fascinated by one woman’s ability to not only cope with humour, but also record it with such flair.
The book begins with Verily taking a phone call from Donald, her boyfriend, asking for her ring size. Sending a telegram in response “P DARLING STOP YOUR ADORING V” alerts the army Captain she is driving to possible fifth columnist activity. She had joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (F.A.N.Y.S) at the first opportunity to be part of the war, but the complications of a swift wedding means that she leaves suddenly, which was possibly a good thing in the light of her previous arrest for a misunderstanding in the house of a family friend. She comes from a large family, some of whom do not return from service, and there is a very real fear of invasion, which leads to her mother burying sardines. A bout of German measles finds her confined in an infection hospital, being visited by an alderman friend in a “sparkling Rolls Royce”. It is these little phrases that lighten what could be tragic, such as her tears “falling into a fire bucket”. After a traumatic birth she does not feel fear as much as disappointment that she was not sitting up in bed with a baby in an artfully arranged nightgown. Having a small child who was apparently excited by air raids was unhelpful, so she must find a house at a safe distance, and deal with a financial crisis that had her taking some unusual holidaymakers with varying success.
This book represents an excellent slice of social history, as a woman tries to contend with everything thrown at her and her family. As people arrive in her life she describes them in a few but effective words, reflecting the transitory nature of wartime life and her enormous skill at capturing characters. I truly enjoyed this book, partly for its honest descriptions of life, but also the realistic humour that is never laboured, but completely natural. I would love to read more of her writing and would thoroughly recommend this wonderful read of life for a woman in the most unsettling of circumstances.

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars - a wonderful WWII memoir with which to finish my 2025 Retro Reads book pool reads!

In the last few years, I’ve read and loved some delightful WWII memoirs. I was immensely inspired and touched by the fortitude, strength, courage and grace under fire shown by average Londoners in the Blitz portrayed in A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell, and then her portrait of life on the other side, as wife of a civil servant in devastated Berlin during the occupation after the war in The Dancing Bear.

This is a different type of memoir; Verily Anderson starts with a jaunty, humorous and very unsentimental look at her childhood memories growing up the daughter of a rector in Sussex. I wasn’t sure how to take it - her rather scattershot approach was telegraphic and difficult to keep straight (wait, is this her London roommate? Who’s this girl or guy? A sibling? A boyfriend?)

Once we get to the first year of the war (I’ve heard it described as the “Phoney War”), when war had been declared and everyone is excited to get into it, then bored when nothing happens, the narrative picks up, or I just got used to her playful style. Her description of a horrific stay in a fever hospital with German measles, and her court martial for driving into a wall while serving as a young woman driver (I wasn’t familiar with the service acronym), made the early months of the war sound farcical! Everyone wanted to go to war, got a bit carried away in their enthusiasm-I’m surprised she survived some of her adventures.

I really enjoyed the time she and her housemate, sharing a Cotswold farmhouse and expenses and sharing care for their babies as their husbands served, decided to take in boarders to help make ends meet. Verily and her husband had had various health problems and moved house several times in London to escape bombing and needed to retrench.

Their first guests seemed to expect a seaside resort with boardwalk and amenities (and electricity), and left in a huff after two days. The second guests were taking a break from their own guesthouse, were cut from kinder cloth, and took pity on the two budding entrepreneurs and gave valuable advice on how to go on and stretch resources.

This was definitely a different, more lighthearted memoir than previous reads, but nonetheless touching and affecting. Verily was matter of fact in her stories of friends old and new who died in the Pacific or Normandy or elsewhere, but I didn’t think she was being callous. I think she was resourceful and brave, and kept her sense of humor and sense of the ridiculous, because it helped her and her loved ones get through a horrific war.

I really enjoyed this, and want to thank my fellow members of the Retro Reads group for creating such memorable book pools over the last few years. You’ve introduced me to authors and books I might never have discovered otherwise , and enriched my reading immeasurably!

[T.J. Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Well, this is one of the most charming and amusing WWII memoirs I have ever read. But it is not done in a careless or callous way. The seriousness of the British home front and the Blitz comes through clearly. But Verily Anderson's bright, lively prose is the epitome of the British "stiff upper lip" vibe - she manages and even thrives through bombings, serious illnesses, multiple moves, financial troubles, and more, and she has a marvelous self-deprecating, down-to-earth tone. I wasn't sure about the book for the first few chapters, but it really grew on me, and I ended up wishing it was much longer than its 240 pages. I missed her voice when I finished. I would love to find some of Anderson's other memoirs, but they are much more difficult to source.

Description (from Goodreads):

From an impromptu wedding in the early days of World War II, to a bout with German measles in a hospital reminiscent of a medieval torture chamber, to becoming the first casualty for over-eager V.A.D.s, Verily Anderson’s war gets off to a bumpy start. And it doesn’t get easier.

In this acclaimed memoir, we follow the inimitable Verily and her husband Donald through all the vicissitudes of war, including the unforgettable birth of Verily’s first child in the midst of a German bombing raid. By turns hilarious, poignant, and harrowing (and sometimes all three at once), Spam Tomorrow presents a rollicking view of home front life from the perspective of one strong, courageous, and very funny participant.

It was especially fascinating to me to learn about what pregnancy and delivery were like in London during the Blitz. Verily is sent to live at home for mothers for the last month of her first pregnancy because "the authorities at the ante-natal clinic told me that they liked their expectant mothers to prepare themselves for their ordeal with a month away from the air-raids." Nevertheless, her daughter is born in the midst of bombing. The competitiveness and conversations between the expectant mothers at the home were very entertaining. Verily has a difficult delivery, and her recovery takes months; I was very curious what complications she had, but a name is never given to her condition. It seemed like she had some kind of persistent uterine infection. 

Verily and Donald's adventures in sharing their homes with various roommates were also highly captivating - from the French woman who took advantage of Verily's motherly nature to a potential German spy! And Verily and her friend Julie's attempts to make a little extra money by offering to accept city guests at their country farm home were hilarious - the demanding artist colony!! 

Verily is always willing to admit her own faults but never willing to admit defeat. Her voice is casual yet sincere. Her insights are bursting with flavor and intelligence. I was definitely beguiled by this wartime romp which highlighted that, even in the midst of horrors, joy and love and humor persist.

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spam Tomorrow is Verily Anderson’s first memoir which starts while she is a single woman volunteering with the delightfully named F.A.N.Ys (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) just before the outbreak of WWII. Whilst there she receives a laidback proposal of marriage from Donald on the telephone, whom she marries quickly and against her family’s wishes. Donald is a struggling playwright but during the war he has a job with the Ministry of Information and is frequently absent leaving Verily to manage as best she can. The main part of the book is about life in London during the Blitz, making a home and hosting a variety of guests whilst managing married life, illnesses and motherhood in an often frantic and make-do way.

The writing style is quite light, although not as light as I expected and is honest and poignant I thought. The book tended to feel like reading a series of Things That Happened’, and they are by turns interesting, peculiar and funny. I really enjoyed it and I think it is a wonderful piece of social history; I particulary enjoyed reading about the her attitude to the air raids in London and her encounters with the American soldiers based near her home in The Cotswolds.

I definitely want to read the other three memoirs.

[Teri-K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful, fun memoir of a young newly-wed living in London, and other places, during WWII. This is an episodic tale that bounces from one event to another, and I felt like I'd spent a few hours listening to someone reminiscing over fond memories of hard times. It isn't a coherent narrative, and the author isn't trying to make any grand statements about war and survival, she's simply relating things from a period in her life that she found challenging, sometimes difficult, but endurable and often enjoyable.

I had a lot of fun reading this, constantly picking it up to see what happened next. She skates over some really awful things with a style that reminded me of some other older memoirs I've enjoyed**, and I was sorry when the war, and the book, ended. I thought about giving it four stars because it isn't a serious biographical retelling of the war on the home front, but I don't think it's trying to be. And it does what I believe the author intended very, very well, so five stars from me.

** Reminded me of The Egg and I, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, or the Mrs. Tim books, as well as the novels by Miss Read.

[Ruthiella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir of Anderson’s experiences as a young wife and mother in both London and in the countryside during WWII. She does start a bit with her upbringing and youth, but the “story” such as it is doesn’t start really until she is kicked out of the F.A.N.Y. and moves to London to be near her husband, who works for the Ministry of Information. Later she decamps to the country with her two young daughters. She had a great sense of humor about what surely was an unsettling and terrifying time. One of the funny bits I remember is her scavenging for a nursery fire guard among the bombed out houses and being caught by a policeman. Looting was, of course, a real problem during the war. But the policemen lets her go, telling her he had been eying it himself for his own child’s nursery and is only upset that she got there before he did. Read for #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub on Litsy.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
This was a very fun to read yet slightly strange WWII memoir. It started out pacy and very funny, then went to slightly then full on traumatic but not for the reasons you would think. No, it wasn’t the blitz, it was one health problem after another for Verily and then her husband. Get that done and it went on to war troubles or wacky stories about lodgers and American G.I.s.
All of it interesting but again the pacing was just a little weird. Verily Anderson has a very engaging and witty writing style that makes all the pacing issues absolutely worth it. Would love Furrowed Middlebrow to release her other memoirs “Our Square” and “Beware of Children”, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this wish!
Query: Where does the title “Spam Tomorrow” originate? Because I only remember spam being mentioned in passing and it didn’t stand out…

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun, breezy memoir about Anderson's childhood and adolescence, the outbreak of WW2, and her marriage and life on the Home Front during the war. She has a great sense of humour about everything she was having to deal with, and I loved all the details of daily life. It has a very different rhythm to it than similar books I've read; Anderson is not spending time extolling the glories of Dunkirk or bewailing rationing or talking about her miseries, and while obviously that is a narrative choice -- I am sure she had plenty of unhappy times -- it made for a really enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to more of her work!

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

WWII memoirs by women are my jam. Verily Anderson's tone is light and very "carry on" as she navigates war time Britain, including her time in the FANYs. She moves to London with her husband, has her first child, and then eventually leaves for the countryside, shaken by the nightly air raids, moving back once they let off. Her memoir contains both the little details of living in England during WWII and descriptions of the tough times. I also recommend "Few Eggs and No Oranges" a wonderful diary by Vere Hodgson on living through the Blitz in London.

[Niki (nikilovestoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spam Tomorrow is Verily Anderson's memoir of her life during WWII in England. While I did enjoy it, for the most part, the writing felt disjointed at times and often leaped from one topic to another. A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell remains my favorite of the Dean Street Press books about life in England during WWII.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I was a little frustrated by the vague nature of some of the story. I know the book was probably considered to be more original and unique when first printed, but since then there have been many books about the home front during wartime, and for me, this one was fine, but not the best.