What do you think?
Rate this book
Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War
Patricia & Jean Owtram are possibly the only living sisters to have signed the wartime Official Secrets act.
Raised in a Lancashire country house in the 1920s, the family takes in two Austrian Jewish refugees, and the sisters quickly become fluent in German - which will go on to shape their roles for ever.
When war breaks out in 1939, Patricia is snapped up by the Wrens and posted to top-secret listening stations along the British coastline. Collaborating with Bletchley Park, she is tasked with intercepting German shipping radio in a bid to crack the seemingly impenetrable Enigma Code.
Jean's quick brain for crossword solving lands her a secretive role as Code & Cipher Officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. At just 18 years of age, Jean is posted to Cairo, before moving on to Italy to aid the Partisan efforts against the Nazis.
As the sisters continue to demonstrate their outstanding intelligence, resilience and fierce determination, the tide of war gradually begins to turn in Britain's favour.
This is the astonishing story of persistence, comradeship and fighting spirit showed by everyday people in bringing the Nazis down.
Raised in a Lancashire country house in the 1920s, the family takes in two Austrian Jewish refugees, and the sisters quickly become fluent in German - which will go on to shape their roles for ever.
When war breaks out in 1939, Patricia is snapped up by the Wrens and posted to top-secret listening stations along the British coastline. Collaborating with Bletchley Park, she is tasked with intercepting German shipping radio in a bid to crack the seemingly impenetrable Enigma Code.
Jean's quick brain for crossword solving lands her a secretive role as Code & Cipher Officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. At just 18 years of age, Jean is posted to Cairo, before moving on to Italy to aid the Partisan efforts against the Nazis.
As the sisters continue to demonstrate their outstanding intelligence, resilience and fierce determination, the tide of war gradually begins to turn in Britain's favour.
This is the astonishing story of persistence, comradeship and fighting spirit showed by everyday people in bringing the Nazis down.
182 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 23, 2020
44 people are currently reading
520 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
December 4, 2022
Patricia and Jean Owtram were only teenagers when the Second World War started, they lived at Newland Hall, five miles from Lancaster and the sisters had a typical English upper class childhood. Educated at home by a governess, they had a pony, the family went fishing in Scotland and as teenagers they attended boarding school. The family took in two Jewish Austrian refugees, Edith and Lilly and Patricia and Jean quickly became fluent in German and with a slight Austrian accent.
When the war broke out in 1939, their father Gary Owtram was a major in the 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, and his unit was sent to Singapore and he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. Patricia joined the Wrens, she signed the secret services act, and was sent to various remote locations along the British coastline. Patricia listened to German radio messages, quickly wrote them down and had no idea they were forwarded on to Bletchley Park and where the German Enigma code was cracked.
Jean was two years younger than Patricia and once Jean turned eighteen she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. Jean's first posting was in Cairo and then Italy, where she helped the Partisan efforts against the Germans, and yet she was too young to celebrate the D-Day landing with an alcoholic beverage.
Two sisters who couldn’t discuss what they did during the war, finally in the 1960’s they did and were able to honor their father’s wartime service in a fitting way. A true story about the vital work of young women during the Second World War, the responsibilities they took on as teenagers, and how they helped England achieve victory.
I received a copy of Codebreaking Sisters from NetGalley and Mirror Books in exchange for an honest review. This book was less than two hundred pages, I enjoyed every single one and I don't normally read biographies. Patricia and Jean Owtram’s experiences and maturity was truly inspirational, don’t forget their father was a prisoner of war at the time and they didn’t know his fate. Five stars from me, I highly recommend reading this amazing true story and it’s full of interesting facts and information about the Second World War.
When the war broke out in 1939, their father Gary Owtram was a major in the 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, and his unit was sent to Singapore and he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. Patricia joined the Wrens, she signed the secret services act, and was sent to various remote locations along the British coastline. Patricia listened to German radio messages, quickly wrote them down and had no idea they were forwarded on to Bletchley Park and where the German Enigma code was cracked.
Jean was two years younger than Patricia and once Jean turned eighteen she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. Jean's first posting was in Cairo and then Italy, where she helped the Partisan efforts against the Germans, and yet she was too young to celebrate the D-Day landing with an alcoholic beverage.
Two sisters who couldn’t discuss what they did during the war, finally in the 1960’s they did and were able to honor their father’s wartime service in a fitting way. A true story about the vital work of young women during the Second World War, the responsibilities they took on as teenagers, and how they helped England achieve victory.
I received a copy of Codebreaking Sisters from NetGalley and Mirror Books in exchange for an honest review. This book was less than two hundred pages, I enjoyed every single one and I don't normally read biographies. Patricia and Jean Owtram’s experiences and maturity was truly inspirational, don’t forget their father was a prisoner of war at the time and they didn’t know his fate. Five stars from me, I highly recommend reading this amazing true story and it’s full of interesting facts and information about the Second World War.
June 23, 2020
Very interesting.
This book is written by two sisters, originally from Lancashire. They write one or two chapters each, and swap over. Some of their letters to each other, as well as to their mum are slotted in as well as the normal narrative.
The Second World War broke out when they were kids. So, they were just teenagers when they started doing their bit for the war effort. The two young sisters are away doing their bit for King and country in WW2, not knowing whether their father is alive or dead. He's missing; they know he could die at any moment, or indeed, already be dead.
I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first as there seemed endless 'darlings' and 'mummy darlings' in their letters-it seemed excessive and a kindle search told me darling and darlingest was used 74 times in the book! But I soon got over that as it became very interesting and informative. You get a combination of History and Travel in this memoir, and I enjoyed reading it.
A very interesting account of their experiences.
This book is written by two sisters, originally from Lancashire. They write one or two chapters each, and swap over. Some of their letters to each other, as well as to their mum are slotted in as well as the normal narrative.
The Second World War broke out when they were kids. So, they were just teenagers when they started doing their bit for the war effort. The two young sisters are away doing their bit for King and country in WW2, not knowing whether their father is alive or dead. He's missing; they know he could die at any moment, or indeed, already be dead.
I wasn't sure I was going to like it at first as there seemed endless 'darlings' and 'mummy darlings' in their letters-it seemed excessive and a kindle search told me darling and darlingest was used 74 times in the book! But I soon got over that as it became very interesting and informative. You get a combination of History and Travel in this memoir, and I enjoyed reading it.
A very interesting account of their experiences.
July 24, 2020
Patricia & Jean Owtram, sisters born two years apart, have the course of their lives changed completely by the Second World War. After their father becomes a Prisoner of War of the Japanese, Patricia joins the WRNS (Wrens) where she is involved in intercepting messages from the German shipping radio, whilst Jean works overseas in FANY as a Code & Cipher officer.
What lives these two sisters have led - it was enthralling to read about their jobs in WWII. Both sisters have their own chapters and we can see how their careers developed separately but that they kept their strong family bond. The book is written in such a way that it is like having a cozy chat over a cup of tea, with excerpts from their letters to each other and their family members. If I have one criticism it is that sometimes the letters could have been edited down a little in places. Recommended if you want to learn what life was like for young women in the services (WRNS and FANY).
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Mirror Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
What lives these two sisters have led - it was enthralling to read about their jobs in WWII. Both sisters have their own chapters and we can see how their careers developed separately but that they kept their strong family bond. The book is written in such a way that it is like having a cozy chat over a cup of tea, with excerpts from their letters to each other and their family members. If I have one criticism it is that sometimes the letters could have been edited down a little in places. Recommended if you want to learn what life was like for young women in the services (WRNS and FANY).
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Mirror Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
June 8, 2020
would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this fascinating book
world war two
2 sisters about to embrace life suddenly have their lives turned around with the advent of war
both enlist and sign the official secrets act and experience life in their service to king and country...though each of them not knowing what the other was doing and a father a prisoner of war.
it was a fascinating read and to realise that they paved the way for women to become more independent and to realise their own worth,
well worth a read
world war two
2 sisters about to embrace life suddenly have their lives turned around with the advent of war
both enlist and sign the official secrets act and experience life in their service to king and country...though each of them not knowing what the other was doing and a father a prisoner of war.
it was a fascinating read and to realise that they paved the way for women to become more independent and to realise their own worth,
well worth a read
October 25, 2020
An interesting insight into the contribution of ordinary citizens in WWII, however, I was disappointed by the misleading blurb.
My copy states the sisters "helped crack the Enigma code", and that their "top-secret mission would finally see the tide of war turn in Britain's favour."
Now, reading this book, it's obvious these were two very intelligent and brave young women, and in no way is this review meant to in any way disparage their efforts and contributions during the war. It was fascinating reading about their day-to-day and getting insight into what the war was like for them.
However, it is my understanding that, although they took down the Enigma messages, the actual code-cracking was done at Bletchley Park, another station where neither woman was placed. In fact, Enigma itself and its codes is only given a few paragraphs worth of space in the entire book. And it's mentioned at the very beginning of those paragraphs that Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman's Bombe machine could "decode Enigma as fast as the Germans cold write it."
From that, I draw the conclusion that while the sister working on this played an important part, as did all her counterparts, she was not directly involved in *cracking the code*, which was my understanding having read the blurb, and that which attracted me to this book in the first place.
The wording of the latter bit, "their top-secret mission" that would "see the tide of war turn" implies these two ladies were working on a secret mission that was directly involved in changing the course of the war. I suppose if they hadn't put forward some of the messages they received, Jean in particular mentions a message about a cricket match that proves to be vitally important, then this might in turn have affected outcomes of important events, or led to the death of members of the resistance - so technically I will agree this is correct. However, the way this is worded can easily lead one to believe there was one significant major event they were both involved in, and majorly responsible for, that made the whole difference, and that wasn't the case.
My impression of this book from the blurb was an extraordinary story about two extraordinary women who were imperative to and directly involved in major events that ended up being crucial in defeating the Nazis. What this story actually is is an, admittedly, pretty interesting account of the efforts of two ordinary women in the war, who performed duties as part of wider teams with other ordinary women and men.
This fault does not lie with the writers however. While I thought some of the letters interspersed were of moderate interest, finding out more about the inner workings of Britain's part of the war, an area I didn't know anything about previously, was more my cup of tea.
Following the sisters along in their journey as they went from sheltered, pretty naive young women to "women with a purpose" (as the book so nicely put it) was lovely. These ladies are highly educated and accomplished ladies and I think it was wonderful to learn what they ended up doing after the war.
I quite liked the writing, and I enjoyed Patricia's poems. I also was very pleased to learn their father's diary was published, as his experience of the war sounded fascinating.
As the sisters were ordinary people like you and me, their experience might have been ours had we been born in the same generation, and that makes it the more interesting.
My copy states the sisters "helped crack the Enigma code", and that their "top-secret mission would finally see the tide of war turn in Britain's favour."
Now, reading this book, it's obvious these were two very intelligent and brave young women, and in no way is this review meant to in any way disparage their efforts and contributions during the war. It was fascinating reading about their day-to-day and getting insight into what the war was like for them.
However, it is my understanding that, although they took down the Enigma messages, the actual code-cracking was done at Bletchley Park, another station where neither woman was placed. In fact, Enigma itself and its codes is only given a few paragraphs worth of space in the entire book. And it's mentioned at the very beginning of those paragraphs that Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman's Bombe machine could "decode Enigma as fast as the Germans cold write it."
From that, I draw the conclusion that while the sister working on this played an important part, as did all her counterparts, she was not directly involved in *cracking the code*, which was my understanding having read the blurb, and that which attracted me to this book in the first place.
The wording of the latter bit, "their top-secret mission" that would "see the tide of war turn" implies these two ladies were working on a secret mission that was directly involved in changing the course of the war. I suppose if they hadn't put forward some of the messages they received, Jean in particular mentions a message about a cricket match that proves to be vitally important, then this might in turn have affected outcomes of important events, or led to the death of members of the resistance - so technically I will agree this is correct. However, the way this is worded can easily lead one to believe there was one significant major event they were both involved in, and majorly responsible for, that made the whole difference, and that wasn't the case.
My impression of this book from the blurb was an extraordinary story about two extraordinary women who were imperative to and directly involved in major events that ended up being crucial in defeating the Nazis. What this story actually is is an, admittedly, pretty interesting account of the efforts of two ordinary women in the war, who performed duties as part of wider teams with other ordinary women and men.
This fault does not lie with the writers however. While I thought some of the letters interspersed were of moderate interest, finding out more about the inner workings of Britain's part of the war, an area I didn't know anything about previously, was more my cup of tea.
Following the sisters along in their journey as they went from sheltered, pretty naive young women to "women with a purpose" (as the book so nicely put it) was lovely. These ladies are highly educated and accomplished ladies and I think it was wonderful to learn what they ended up doing after the war.
I quite liked the writing, and I enjoyed Patricia's poems. I also was very pleased to learn their father's diary was published, as his experience of the war sounded fascinating.
As the sisters were ordinary people like you and me, their experience might have been ours had we been born in the same generation, and that makes it the more interesting.
January 2, 2022
This was a very interesting book about the experience of two sisters, Jean and Pat, during the Second World War. Both become employed in war work that involved them signing the Official Secrets Act. From a very privileged background their work led them leading lives very far removed from what they might have expected as they ended up working in communications, decoding and later with refugees in a variety of locations including Egypt and Italy. The book is a mixture of their reminiscing, letters and diary entries. It was collated together very well and I particularly enjoyed hearing the human element behind historical events. Once I was a few chapters in it became very difficult to put down! A great read for anyone interested in the more social history side of WW2 and memoirs.
November 16, 2025
Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War is a memoir which highlights Patricia and Jean Owtram’s roles during the Second World War. The girls were just fourteen and sixteen years old when war broke out, and still at school.
As a family they had several members who were already part of the military and their own father soon went off on active duty to the Far East. On the home-front their Grandfather recruited two Jewish Austrian ladies to help in the house and Patricia and Jean both learnt German while helping the ladies with their English.
Patricia left school and after a stint at secretarial college she then applied to the WRNS where she was trained for the Y station radio listening posts which were stationed along the south coast. Her duties involved collecting messages from the German U-boats and ships which were sent to Bletchley for decoding.
Jean took a different route, again after a secretarial course. She applied to the FANYs and her decoding skills were put to use when they sent her to Cairo and then later to Italy once the liberation of Italy began.
The chapters hop back and forth between Patricia and Jean as the war years advance and it was interesting to hear about their work, their lives and their feelings. They didn’t talk about any of their work with each other until the 1960s, this was due to signing the Official Secrets Act. Both sisters went on to have long careers and they put much of this down to their war time experiences and the significant changes that opened up for women because of the war years.
As a family they had several members who were already part of the military and their own father soon went off on active duty to the Far East. On the home-front their Grandfather recruited two Jewish Austrian ladies to help in the house and Patricia and Jean both learnt German while helping the ladies with their English.
Patricia left school and after a stint at secretarial college she then applied to the WRNS where she was trained for the Y station radio listening posts which were stationed along the south coast. Her duties involved collecting messages from the German U-boats and ships which were sent to Bletchley for decoding.
Jean took a different route, again after a secretarial course. She applied to the FANYs and her decoding skills were put to use when they sent her to Cairo and then later to Italy once the liberation of Italy began.
The chapters hop back and forth between Patricia and Jean as the war years advance and it was interesting to hear about their work, their lives and their feelings. They didn’t talk about any of their work with each other until the 1960s, this was due to signing the Official Secrets Act. Both sisters went on to have long careers and they put much of this down to their war time experiences and the significant changes that opened up for women because of the war years.
August 19, 2023
Enjoyed this book,very informative ,very interesting
March 27, 2021
An interesting story of life during WW2 and the role women played.
July 18, 2020
This is a book that I loved and could not put it down.
With all the talk about removing monuments, etc going on at the moment I feel monuments should be erected for wonderful workers like these 2 ladies and books like this should be studied by children as part of their school curriculum.
There are so many stories in the book, along with extracts from their diaries and letters to family. The book is very well written and you get so engrossed in reading that you can imagine that both ladies are in the room with you sharing a coffee as they tell their stories.
If you like history and investigating World War 2 then this is a book you definitely need to check out.
2 amazing Lancashire ladies with so many exciting and interesting stories to tell
With all the talk about removing monuments, etc going on at the moment I feel monuments should be erected for wonderful workers like these 2 ladies and books like this should be studied by children as part of their school curriculum.
There are so many stories in the book, along with extracts from their diaries and letters to family. The book is very well written and you get so engrossed in reading that you can imagine that both ladies are in the room with you sharing a coffee as they tell their stories.
If you like history and investigating World War 2 then this is a book you definitely need to check out.
2 amazing Lancashire ladies with so many exciting and interesting stories to tell
January 28, 2021
Not so sure they were code breakers but definitely involved in that branch during the war.
What was more interesting to me was the social history from their class of people and indeed the very culture of the era. It caused me to recall my grandmother telling me how her paid work stopped at marriage because that was the norm.
What was more interesting to me was the social history from their class of people and indeed the very culture of the era. It caused me to recall my grandmother telling me how her paid work stopped at marriage because that was the norm.
July 4, 2021
Really enjoyed this book, great insight into some elements of society during this time as well as some of the opportunities the war had given women and the huge impact it had on modern society.
July 16, 2020
"This is the astonishing story of persistence, comradeship and fighting spirit showed by everyday people in bringing the Nazis down."
This book is written by two sisters, Patricia and Jean, who are only teenagers when the outbreak of WW2 happens. Both girls are very eager to do their part for the war effort, whist also worrying abut their father, who is also fighting on the front lines and their family at home in Lancashire.
I really enjoyed this book! Anyone that knows me, knows how much I enjoy learning about anything related to WW2 and the 1940's, I got stuck into it straight away, finding it hard to put down. I loved that they incorporated parts of the letters that they sent to each other and members of their family. This gave the book such a personal touch and helped to show how they were real people.
There is so much more than just their secret work during the war, you are really taken of the journey of these two girls growing and becoming women. they are a true inspiration and I cannot recommend this book enough.
Thank you to #NetGalley an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is written by two sisters, Patricia and Jean, who are only teenagers when the outbreak of WW2 happens. Both girls are very eager to do their part for the war effort, whist also worrying abut their father, who is also fighting on the front lines and their family at home in Lancashire.
I really enjoyed this book! Anyone that knows me, knows how much I enjoy learning about anything related to WW2 and the 1940's, I got stuck into it straight away, finding it hard to put down. I loved that they incorporated parts of the letters that they sent to each other and members of their family. This gave the book such a personal touch and helped to show how they were real people.
There is so much more than just their secret work during the war, you are really taken of the journey of these two girls growing and becoming women. they are a true inspiration and I cannot recommend this book enough.
Thank you to #NetGalley an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
August 29, 2021
Down-to-earth and detailed account of the lives of 2 sisters at the onset of World War II, one sister becomes a Wren involved with communications intercepting German shipping messages and the other is a Cipher Officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. As their careers & war experiences begin to separate, the chapters in the book flip back & forth between one sister and the other. This was a very interesting read as my only experience with accounts of day-to-day life during the war came from my parents (who were a little younger than these two) so it was enlightening to read what happened to girls once they finished school and what was expected of them at the outbreak of the war. Of particular note was that both these sisters comment on being fairly well fed with good meals during their war careers which is comparatively at odds with the general population based on what my parents said about food shortages and having to live on tea and biscuits, powdered egg and having their parents worry about coupons & rationing, clearly an advantage to be in the Services & wearing a uniform at the time!
August 17, 2020
The ‘codebreaking sisters’ have a very readable style of writing, & make it easy to relate to their account. It is interesting to have different perspectives from siblings – only 2 years apart in age, but they were on either side of the ‘magical’ age of 18 (i.e. when allowed to enlist.) Biographies are far more personal when written by the people who lived them, rather than by others writing about them. Insight into the effect on various members of the family – from several generations - of having their father serving overseas, adds another layer of interest with each person trying to shield the others, to spare them worry. A glimpse into the attitudes of teenage girls toward war itself – a mixture of innocence & bravado - and then later the added perspective of a prisoner-of-war, adding a completely different aspect of wartime experience. (I will certainly be looking out for their father’s book.) All in all this is a really worthwhile read & I would definitely recommend it - & thankyou very much to the authors for sharing their story!
November 30, 2022
One of my colleagues left a pile of books in the staff kitchen with a note saying "help yourselves 😊" and amongst the pile was this book. Naturally I gravited towards the books and immediately spotted this, knowing that war time based books were a firm favourite of mine. I'm so glad I picked this book up because it is had gotten me out of my reading slum and is the first book I have read all the way through in months!
Sometimes I felt as if I was reading a work of fiction or simply listening to a conversation as the tone of the book flowed with such ease and I felt myself getting lost within the Owtram sister's lives. It is utterly fascinating the lives that Patrica and Jean have lived. Their willingness to do their part in the war effort is inspiring and it led them to do things and travel places they never thought they would. I enjoyed the relation between the big war battles and how their work helped to shape those battles and effectively help win us the war. It is a truly inspiring book and the Owtram sister's wartime work and dedication is something to marvel at!
Sometimes I felt as if I was reading a work of fiction or simply listening to a conversation as the tone of the book flowed with such ease and I felt myself getting lost within the Owtram sister's lives. It is utterly fascinating the lives that Patrica and Jean have lived. Their willingness to do their part in the war effort is inspiring and it led them to do things and travel places they never thought they would. I enjoyed the relation between the big war battles and how their work helped to shape those battles and effectively help win us the war. It is a truly inspiring book and the Owtram sister's wartime work and dedication is something to marvel at!
April 6, 2025
I wanted to read this book as one of the sisters worked in Cairo during the war when my great grandmother also worked there. I was hoping they might have met, but if they did, she doesn't say so. This book is divided into chapters written by one or other of two sisters. The sisters themselves were amazing; intrepid and intelligent and unwilling to fit into the pre-war roles expected of them. They didn't lack courage or brains and had wonderful experiences. However I found it less interesting than I had hoped because of the cloying nature of the multitude of letters written home. Also I imagined from the blurb that they had worked at Bletchly and was disappointed that this was a red herring. A good summary of how two women from a privileged background did their bit in during WWII.
July 10, 2020
With Codebreaking Sisters there is more than their secret work during the war. This is also stories about upper class living in the period, families, love, girls maturing to women and the wonderful letters that were written by Pat and Jean that shows the art of writing I feel is now sadly missing with our frantic lives.
I would highly recommend this book to young women as an inspiration to believe in yourself and follow your heart. I just loved this book.
This is an independent review thanks to NetGalley / Mirror Books
I would highly recommend this book to young women as an inspiration to believe in yourself and follow your heart. I just loved this book.
This is an independent review thanks to NetGalley / Mirror Books
December 31, 2020
A fascinating story of women in the 2nd world war, these sisters signed the official secrets act but have now told their stories. They were brought up in a large house near Lancaster and both wanted to do something for the war effort. Knowing some German as they had been taught by Lilli an Austrian refugee helped them, Patricia became a Wren and Jean started off in Egypt in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. The book is mainly their recollections of the war years but I would have liked a bit more about the rest of the family and the actual codebreaking.
January 31, 2021
Not sure what I expected, but when I got the hang of it I learned a lot about the background experiences of young women during World War 2. The over sugary diary entries could perhaps have been edited down, and there were quite a few typos, but I loved seeing these fascinating women grow up. Will probably go on to read their fathers recently published secret diary of a prisoner of war in the far East.
October 9, 2022
this was such a good book to read, about two sisters lives before during and after WW2 and how they both, so young at the time, became involved in code breaking during the war. Their stories although not the same, as they each were involved in separate areas, are told in a chapter each, and we learn how each individually shapes their lives and their futures and how close they remained to their parents and brother all through the war.
September 2, 2023
I was a little misled by the title and blurb - for the first few chapters I wondered when one of the sisters would end up assigned to Bletchly Park. Despite the blurb, neither sister helped crack the Enigma code (although one did valuable work at stations intercepting messages that were passed on to those that did). Despite my misconceptions going in, their stories are an interesting read and give a real life view of what it was like as a woman working in WW2.
October 19, 2025
Whilst the history and the first hand encounters of it were really poignant and interesting, I'm afraid I found the sugary language in the letter excerpts a little distracting and irritating. Whilst I realise these were real letters written to home, for me they took away from the true purpose of the book.
abandoned
April 8, 2021Five chapters in and I’m still not finding the content interesting enough to want to continue ( having just been through a danger filled ‘lady’ spy biography before this one hasn’t really allowed this memoir to get off the ground for me).
September 7, 2022
ooooh, i love you, patricia and jean!
i wish i was writing letters to my mother, because they would all start with "my own darling mother"!
the fist part is a bit slow, or i just needed to get used to the style, then it flew.
i wish i was writing letters to my mother, because they would all start with "my own darling mother"!
the fist part is a bit slow, or i just needed to get used to the style, then it flew.
November 10, 2023
An incredible true story.With their fierce intelligence and steely determination, these remarkable young women would stop at nothing to help crack the Enigma code, support Allied troops, and defeat the Nazis
March 26, 2024
An interesting, enjoyable memoir, with many interesting stories and observations about WWII and the role women played in it. It concludes with two moving poems written by one of the authors.
We owe this generation and these women so much.
We owe this generation and these women so much.
January 29, 2025
A delightful dual memoir. While these sisters never stepped foot in Bletchley Park, both held vital roles during the war that contributed to code breaking and the work done at BP.
Their wit and wisdom did clear in their writing. A lovely record of a Wren and a FANY during WW2.
Their wit and wisdom did clear in their writing. A lovely record of a Wren and a FANY during WW2.
October 12, 2020
Memoirs of two Lancashire sisters and their contribution to the war effort. One was a WREN the other worked for FANY. Fascinating and beautifully written. Well worth reading.
January 6, 2021
Very matter-of-fact wartime account from two sisters who get involved in code-breaking in the war. Interesting and clearly written
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews