Henrietta Sees it Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-45

Henrietta's War #2

by Joyce Dennys

Henrietta takes up weeding and plays the triangle in the local orchestra to take her mind off things; the indomitable Lady B, now in her late seventies, partakes in endless fund-raising events to distract herself from thoughts of life without elastic; and, Faith, the village flirt, finds herself amongst the charming company of the American GIs.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, British Literature, Historical, Humor, War

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

JOYCE DENNYS was born 14th August 1883 in India. The Dennys family relocated to England in 1886. Dennys enjoyed drawing lessons throughout her schooling and later enrolled at Exeter Art School. In 1919 Dennys married Tom Evans, a young doctor, and they moved to Australia. While living in New South Wales, Dennys's work was constantly in print and exhibited in many galleries. In 1922 Joyce became a mother and moved back to England. Her drawing took second place to the domestic and social duties of a doctor's wife and mother and she became increasingly frustrated. She voiced her frustrations through the character of Henrietta, a heroine she created for an article for Sketch. Henrietta was to become so important to Dennys that she once remarked, ‘When I stopped doing the piece after the war, I felt quite lost. Henrietta was part of me. I never quite knew where I ended and she began.' These letters were later compiled to form Henrietta's War, first published by Andre Deutsch in 1985.

Reviews

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as witty and entertaining as the first volume. A needed respite in my reading.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nowhere near as funny as the first book but still a fun read. I especially loved Lady B in this one.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel to “Henrietta’s War,” and again it takes the form of fictional letters, written by Henrietta Brown – wife to the local doctor and mother to grown up children Bill and the Linnet – who spent the war in a ‘safe area’ of Devon, in the small rural community where she lived. Published in Sketch magazine, these letters gave the housewife a voice in the war; showing the daily struggles made by the countless women around the country who coped with rationing, evacuees – or being one – fuel targets, digging for victory, cuts and the general weariness caused by a war which had gone on for several years. Henrietta suffers when a ‘Good Book Drive’ means she must give up some of her precious and beloved volumes, feeling “like a mother delivering her children to an orphanage.” Everyone is a little tired now and have to keep giving each other support. Also, tempers are a little frayed, but all in all everyone is muddling through and managing very well.

Of course, Henrietta and her friends are aware that they are not in the front line and they suffer many pointed comments from those who have been bombed out. As Lady B, Henrietta’s closest friend and ally states though, living in London is very much like being an “only child.” Residing in the close knit community where they live is difficult, but is ultimately like being in a family – often leading to squabbles, but ultimately good for you. However, the jibes obviously hurt, especially when the war intrudes in personal ways. There is one really tragic moment when somebody's son is killed, yet the mother still takes part in a croquet tournament, and does not even tell anyone there that it happened. I found a real lump in my throat, I have to say, and was surprised in such a generally light-hearted book. Indeed, the general feel of this, second, book, is much wearier and people tend to suffer more ‘night terrors’ and stress. However, there is also much humour and warmth too. Faith finally ties the knot with the Conductor, The Linnet gets engaged and life, of course, goes on.

Together, these books paint an interesting picture of the Home Front in a small seaside town. Obviously they are meant as propaganda and Henrietta is ultimately cheerful and sensible; her voice persuading women they are doing their best and exhorting them to try harder. Her longing for an evacuee is one which was certainly not welcomed with joy by many housewives, I am sure. However, they are an enjoyable read and I love the characters we meet throughout the two books. Joyce Dennys was an absolute comic genius and her work still has the power to move you, make you think and make you laugh.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to reread, and I liked it, but still think that the first one is funnier. I'll reread that one at some point, but don't own it; I bought this one in order to read the sequel.

This is a series of fictional letters that were written as a regular feature in a British periodical during WW II. Henrietta is writing to a childhood friend who is serving in the war, and recounts numerous funny stories in them, all based on real things that were going on at the time. There are also cartoon line drawings with many of them, drawn by Dennys as well. The book ends with the end of the war. You don't have to read the books in order.

[JoLynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who needs their spirits lifted should read this book. Funny, poignant, and inspiring.

[Chautona Havig · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as I loved the story, I have to confess I didn't enjoy the new narrator. I kept finding myself having to go back because I wanted to block out the voice. :(

Still, again, there isn't really a plot unless it's the survival of people in a time of distress and the ways they strive to keep life from stripping them bare.

I want more, but of course... these are 30 years old. Not likely.

[Elisha Condie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read this again and feel like it deserves a better review. For some perverse reason I have a much easier time articulating why I didn't like a book. When I love one I just keep spluttering "It's so good! So good! I really loved it!" .... which is obviously lacking in detail.

So, in this book Henrietta continues her letters to her childhood friend, Robert who is fighting in WWII. She writes about their village and what is happening there. Henrietta is SO funny. Right at the beginning she sees a nice, elderly gentleman sitting on a bench staring out to sea and she, along with a neighbor, decide he must be a spy. They alarm the poor fellow and chase him around the shore until he gets away and they find him later telling a lady in the club how he was "chased, yes positively chased by two females today - and they were old enough to know better", and Henrietta and friend slink away.

Her letters consist of details about how their small town tries to help the war effort, how her husband (the town doctor) is busy working, and how her neighbors keep things interesting. In one chapter she is determined to corner and kiss an elderly neighbor at a New Years party who does NOT want to play the game. It really made me laugh.

Truly, I love this book. It's just so clever. Dennys illustrates it with her own little cartoonish drawings and I couldn't love it more. Seriously, someone read this and then I'll have someone to talk about it with.

[Susan Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henrietta Sees It Through is a terrific read. I am partial to novels written in the epistolatory style and this book is a fine example of how well this technique can work. Henrietta’s letters to an old friend paint of picture of British life on the home front during the Second World War. Henrietta is a doctor’s wife in a small town. Her witty letters amuse the reader with tales of family, friends and neighbors and include the author’s charming drawings of their adventures. While always written with a light touch, the letters reveal the difficulties of living in a country weary of war and the deprivations that accompany it. Although it probably helps to have read the first book, Henrietta’s War, Joyce Dennys is such a fine writer that the reader quickly becomes familiar with the characters and invested in their stories. It was only after reading the book that I discovered that the “letters” had appeared as sketches in a magazine during the War and were published in book form during the 1980s. My thanks go to the Bloomsbury Group for republishing the Henrietta books. [I won this book through the Goodreads First-Reads Program.]

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fab! I've been reading a few pages every night in Isolation and it is the perfect thing to cheer up and see people still get by before you go to sleep.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dennys was frustrated during WWII; frustrated with being "the doctor's wife" rather than her own person, with her role as a housewife, and mostly with being made to feel guilty about not "contributing" more to the war effort because she was an older & provincial woman. She vented these frustrations through her character Henrietta, who writes letters to her childhood friend Robert, away fighting. Henrietta is charming and honest and I adore her. I enjoyed this sequel to "Henrietta's War" even more than the first book because as the war went on, it further frayed people's nerves, strained friendships, and polarized people's views, and Dennys addresses this deterioration openly and poignantly. Londoners particularly could be self-righteous about their role in dealing with bombings. And yet provincial folk had to deal with evacuees and of course, the loss of their menfolk. For example, in one scene, an Admiral's wife has learned in the morning that her son was killed in action, but she keeps it to herself and goes on to play in a charity croquet tournement in the afternoon, rather than spoiling the event by bowing out. A Londoner happens upon the event:, "'My dear, croquet!' said the Lady Visitor to her companion. Then she gave a little scream. 'Oh! And bowls, too! How sweet! Of course, these people simply don't know there's a war on!' The Admiral dropped his pipe on the grass. As he stooped to pick it up he laid his hand for a moment on Mrs. Admiral's knee."

In addition to wit and perspicacity, the book features Dennys's humorouos line drawings, which remind me of New Yorker cartoons of the time. She was an artist before she was a writer.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a sequel to Joyce Dennys Henrietta's War. While Dennys was reserved in the first book, she opens up a bit more to the reality of homefront hardships in Henrietta Sees it Through. The same "letter to a solider abroad" format is used for this second book, with the major theme being the stresses and extreme guilt placed upon the women left behind from the British government.

Dennys gets across the war weariness well, especially in the March 8, 1944 letter where "Henrietta" explains how everyone in the village is at the end of their ropes, with the closest of friends snapping at each other. In the end, it is an air raid that brings everyone back onto speaking terms; the mutual hatred of Hitler and the experience of going into the shelters reinvigorates the village's relationships. The oddness of this change is expressed by Lady B: "Isn't it awful that we have to have a German plane over us to stop us being disagreeable and make us realize that we have a Great Deal to Be Thankful For?" (117).

If you want to get a better idea of what country women endured in Britain during the second war, you should pick-up this sequel. The letter format makes this collection extremely readable and allows the day-to-day tribulations to be conveyed in digestible segments.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henrietta Sees It Through è il seguito di Henrietta's War, già recensito qui. In realtà entrambi i volumi raccolgono una serie di lettere fittizie ad un fittizio amico scritte e pubblicate (sulla rivista The Sketch) da Joyce Dennys durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Se l'intento ufficiale di Joyce Dennys (e del suo alter ego Henrietta) è di sollevare il morale dei cittadini e dei soldati inglesi, sicuramente una delle più importanti motivazioni dell'autrice fu la frustrazione dovuta al passaggio da una vita da artista ad una vita in cui, per quanto felicemente, il ruolo di moglie e madre ha una precedenza assoluta. Il profilo dell'autrice sul sito della casa editrice inglese che ha recentemente ripubblicato questi due titoli recita che Henrietta era diventata così importante per Joyce Dennys da farle dire: "When I stopped doing the piece after the war, I felt quite lost. Henrietta was part of me. I never quite knew where I ended and she began." (Quando smisi di scrivere questi pezzi dopo la guerra, mi senti piuttosto persa. Henrietta era una parte di me. Non ho mai capito del tutto dove io finivo e iniziava lei.)

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...

[Squeak2017 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Henrietta underlines her contempt for Visitors by having a Londoner unwittingly make a tactless remark to a Devonian who has just lost a second son to the war. To be fair, she also has a Devon character gleefully and maliciously pulping valuable books with the golden excuse that it is part of the war effort. Yet overall, although this is intended as a lighthearted and self deprecating romp through a time of hardship and adversity, Henrietta and her cronies come across as snobbish, entitled and pompous. Charles for example is disgusted that he might lose his practice after the war to a terrible idea known as the NHS, and Mrs. Whinebite is furious to be forced to accept evacuees in her home (for the unspoken accepted truism is that the outsiders will be lazy and lower class). All of these elitist characters are desperate for life to go back to pre-war times, not just for safety for them and their loved ones but for their material comfort and social standing, and the hint of depression behind the jolly facade suggests they see their wealth, rank and privilege slipping away from them.

I also found it odd that she should be writing to a middle aged man in such a gossipy and intimate way. The reminiscences and endearments seemed almost creepy, as if between ex-lovers, and this pseudo-romantic subtext didn’t really fit into the general feel of the novel.

I do try to read books from other eras without judging them by modern standards, to see things from their perspective. But while I could see this book has humour and intelligence in it, snobbery is snobbery and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would.

[Reading Fury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a penchant, or weakness, for these diary type novels set during the Wars. Henrietta picks up where she left off in Henrietta's War, and she continues to be delightful. Lighthearted when possible, serious when necessary, Henrietta/Joyce Dennys offers insights and her personal viewpoint of living through WW2 in a fictional English small town. As a doctor's wife, she sees more than the average person, and she is witty enough in description, if not always thick skinned enough to deflect people's comments and behavior. Whether dealing with the WI or evacuees, Henrietta's resilience and good spirits help us see another version of survival during the war. During this pandemic, I have sometimes wondered "What would Henrietta do?" or "What would Mrs. Tim do?" (D. E. Stevenson) Thank God for novels and women like Dennys and Stevenson during this difficult time.

[Harsha Priolkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as charming and delightful as Henrietta’s War which I read last year, Dennys writes with the very same observant sensitivity and sharp wit that I loved in that first book. Through these familiar and endearingly quirky characters, she takes us ‘behind the scenes’ of wartime England as it were, away from all the action on the Front lines, and into the countryside homes of those left behind - housewives, children, senior citizens - all grappling in their own ways with fear, loneliness and longing.

With this beautifully written, sharply observed account, Dennys manages to lend grace to the horrors of wartime and kept me chuckling through most of the narrative even when tackling serious themes. Highly recommended!

[Purnima · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book stood at the junction of two of my interests- WWII and epistolary novels which made it a really enjoyable read for me. What impressed me about the book was the author's ability to keep things light (even frivolous) and produce a slice of life depiction of life in an English village, given the time and age it was was written in. You recognize and relate to several of the characters despite the time gone by since the writing of this book.
A surprisingly rollicking, uplifting, hilarious (aided by the comic illustrations added by the author herself) WWII read.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Following the epistolary format of Henrietta’s War Joyce Denny’s, thinly disguised as her character Henrietta, writes about her experiences of the latter years of the Second World War as experienced in a small Devon seaside town. The humour is very bittersweet as people try to keep their and each others spirits up as the war drags on. There are some very moving moments and the understatement gives them that much more impact. A lovely book enhances by the author’s humorous illustrations.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and poignant, snippets of domestic life during WWII in the British country side. I have read it many times and loved it.

This time I listed to to an audio version, and the reader almost ruined it, with bizarre emphasis on certain words, booming, ludicrous and childlike voices for the men, and just not at all like the recording of the earlier book, a different narrator.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really delightful follow-up to `Henrietta's War: News From the Home Front' which I read several years ago. The letters-to-a-friend format works well for this type of novel & Dennys does a good job of mixing the worry, frustration & pain with the humor & normalcy of everyday life for those at home during WWII

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful book written in the form of letters to a childhood friend during WWII. Joyce Dennys originally wrote these for Sketch magazine. She also drew the caricatures. They were later compiled into 2 books and were recently released by The Bloomsbury Group.

[Joy O’Toole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book so much. The sequel to Henrietta’s War, these letters detail the home front in Britain during the Second World War, not so much about the difficulties but more about the people and their life in a small English village.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henrietta's War and Henrietta Sees It Through were the perfect books to re-read while I was recuperating this week. I was just as sorry this time as I was two years ago, to say goodbye to Henrietta and her group of friends in their small town in Devon. If you enjoy WW2 era British books written from a woman's viewpoint, with a good deal of humor, you'll enjoy these.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

So there was a continuation to Henrietta's war.
And I loved it!

[Elaine McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly captivating. I re-read it at least once a year.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy we were able to complete the War with Henrietta.

[Kami Reeve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming. Funny. Good writing. I’ve been a huge fan of PG Wodehouse for many years. I love reading good, witty satire. It’s difficult to master. Well done Joyce Dennys.

[Glorianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times hilarious and ridiculous, at times poignant and somber, this book was at all times charming.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my very first "first-reads" book won! I have not received it yet, but I can't wait to get it.
I love "home front" WWII stories! Thanks,Goodreads! I will definitely review it, so the Goodreads team will know I am a good and dependable "first-reads" reviewer.

Jan 21, 2011 Just received this book in the mail today. I will start reading it as soon as I finish the book I am currently in the middle of - which is so good, I cannot put it down to read anything else!

I have now read this fun little book. I was surprised to discover that this book is actually a reprinting of a series of letters written by the fictional character Henrietta, submitted by Joyce Dennis to the British magazine "Sketch," back in the 1940's. They were wildly popular with the British people at the time of original publication because of their humorous view of the "home front" situations people in rural England faced everyday of the war. The publishers of this paperback compilation of those letters from "Henrietta," the Bloomsbury Group, evidently had hopes that people from another time would also enjoy reading these humorous incidents from the daily life of the country folk in Devonshire, England during World War II. I enjoyed them very much! Of course, I am a "1940"s soul living in the body of a 21st century woman. I absolutely love stories, music, movies, history of the war years. This little book gave me a first hand, although a rather light-hearted view of some of the ways these Devon folk dealt with the hardships during the war. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a love of Britain and the 1940's.

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henrietta Sees It Through proves just as witty and charming as the previous volume, Henrietta's War. Written in the form of letters from Henrietta to her childhood friend (now turned soldier), Robert, with amusing little cartoons strewn throughout, I've found this series to be an absolute comfort and delight. Henrietta is a very sensitive sort, more easily affected by things than most, and I find it especially interesting to read about the war from this point of view as I'm exactly the same. It's heartening to hear tales of survival from Highly Sensitive sorts in such grisly, overwhelming times, and I think this is why it remains a comfort for me. If Henrietta can survive the war, I surely can survive the modern world.

Some of my favourite parts, you ask? Certainly!

"Mrs Savernack covered herself with glory by rushing into the garden and firing a shot-gun at the enemy plane.
She swears she scored a hit, and is now so flushed with success that she is trying to form a Women's Home Guard. She says she isn't going to ask me to join, because I wouldn't be any good."

"The admiral mopped his brow. 'You weren't a suffragette before the last war by any chance, were you?' he said.
Lady B twinkled at him. 'We were abroad at the time,' she said, 'but I'd have liked to be one.'"

"'More?' I cried dismayed. 'My idea was to go and live in a small flat in London and know five people.'
'You always were a horrid little Isolationist,' said Lady B.
'Yes,' I said meekly.