AP/PP Anne Popham, private papers
BBC/PW BBC People’s War Website
BC/YO Barbara Cartland, The Years of Opportunity
CL/A Christian Lamb, author interview
CL/HAT Christian Lamb, I Only Joined for the Hat
CM/MM Clara Milburn, Mrs Milburn’s Diaries
CW/A Cora Williams, author interview
DB/A Dorothy Brewer-Kerr, author interview
DB/GIRLS Dorothy Brewer-Kerr, The Girls Behind the Guns
DW/DV Doris White, D for Doris, V for Victory
EJH/A Elizabeth Jane Howard, author interview
EJH/S Elizabeth Jane Howard, Slipstream
FF/BEAR Frances Faviell, The Dancing Bear
FF/CHELSEA Frances Faviell, A Chelsea Concerto
FM/A Flo Mahony, author interview
FP/EL Frances Partridge, Everything to Lose
FP/PW Frances Partridge, A Pacifist’s War
HF/LIME Helen Forrester, Lime Street at Two
HF/L’POOL Helen Forrester, By the Waters of Liverpool
HF/THURS Helen Forrester, Thursday’s Child
HL/CI Helen Long, Change into Uniform
JK/A Joan Kelsall, author interview
JoyT/A Joy Trindles, author interview with her children
JoyT/PP Joy Trindles, private papers
JoyT/PW Joy Trindles, article, BBC People’s War
JP/A Jean Park, author interview
JT/A Joan Tagg, author interview
JW/AO Joan Wyndham, Anything Once
JW/LB Joan Wyndham, Love is Blue
JW/LL Joan Wyndham, Love Lessons
KW/A Kay Wight, author interview
LK/MD Lorna Kite, Mentioned in Despatches
Mar.P/A Margaret Pawley, author interview
Mar.P/OI Margaret Pawley, In Obedience to Instructions
MB/A Mavis Batey, author interview
MB/NGS Margery Berney, No Glass Slipper
MD/A Mary Angove, author interview
MH/FARM Madeleine Henrey, A Farm in Normandy and The Return to the Farm
MH/JOURNAL Madeleine Henrey, Madeleine’s Journal
MH/LONDON Madeleine Henrey, London Under Fire
MO Mass Observation Archive
MP/A Marguerite Patten, author interview
MP-D/NY Mollie Panter-Downes, The New Yorker
MS/MEM Monica Symington, A Memoire: The War and Its Aftermath
NB/TIME Nina Bawden, In My Own Time
NL/NLP Nella Last, Nella Last’s Peace
NL/NLW Nella Last, Nella Last’s War
NM/NOTES Naomi Mitchison, Among You Taking Notes
PB/A Pip Brimson, author interview
PB/PP Pip Brimson, private papers
PB/WAAF Pip Brimson, A WAAF in Bomber Command
PC-H/A Patience Chadwyck-Healey, author interview
PW/A Phyllis Willmott, author interview
PW/CAW Phyllis Willmott, Coming of Age in Wartime
PW/CCA Phyllis Willmott, Diary, Churchill College Archive
PW/GG Phyllis Willmott, A Green Girl
PW/JS Phyllis Willmott, Joys and Sorrows
SH-J/A Sheila Hails, author interview
TR/A Thelma Rendle, author interview
VA/A Verily Anderson, author interview
VA/SPAM Verily Anderson, Spam Tomorrow
VA/SQUARE Verily Anderson, Our Square
Notes
Prelude
pages 1–2. ‘a very ordinary girl …’: PW/GG; PW/CAW; PW/CCA.
pages 2–3. ‘For skinny Jean McFadyen …’: JP/A.
page 3. ‘Patience Chadwyck-Healey …’: PC-H/A.
pages 4–5. ‘Kay Mellis, now in her late eighties …’: KW/A.
page 5. ‘Margaret Herbertson, a diplomat’s daughter …’: Mar.P/A.
pages 5–6. ‘Phyllis (‘Pip’) Beck …’: PB/PP; PB/WAAF.
page 6. ‘Twenty-five year-old Margery Berney …’: MB/NGS.
page 6. ‘Mary Cornish shares a flat …’: author interviews with Elizabeth Paterson (Mary Cornish’s niece), 2009, and Maggie Paterson (niece-in-law), 2009.
pages 6–7. ‘Thelma Ryder, at seventeen …’: TR/A.
page 7. ‘Clara Milburn is fifty-five …’: CM/MM.
page 7. ‘Helen Vlasto is spending …’: HL/CI; author correspondence with Christopher Long (son of Helen Long née Vlasto).
pages 7–8. ‘Monica Littleboy, daughter of a manager …’: MS/MEM.
page 8. ‘Anne Popham, aged twenty-two …’: AP/A.
page 8. ‘Nella Last has lived …’: NL/NLW
page 8. ‘Mavis Lever, a well-read sixth-former …’: MB/A.
pages 8–9. ‘Helen Forrester’s family …’: HF/L’POOL.
page 9. ‘Madeleine Henrey, the chic French wife …’: MH/LONDON.
Chapter 1: We’re at War
page 10. ‘Joan Wyndham started to keep a diary …’: JW/LL.
page 10. ‘Margaret Perry from Nottingham …’: Margaret Perry’s untitled memoir is held in the collection of working-class autobiographies at Brunel University.
page 11. ‘Mary Hewins from Stratford-upon-Avon …’: Angela Hewins, Mary, after the Queen.
page 11. ‘Debutante Susan Meyrick …: cited in Anne de Courcy, Debs at War: 1939-1945 – How Wartime Changed Their Lives.
page 11. ‘Mary Angove down in the West Country …’: MD/A.
page 11. ‘Flo Mahony, now in her late eighties …’: FM/A.
page 11. ‘get a little extra soap darling …’: MP/A.
page 11. ‘buy up hairpins, Kirby grips …’: cited in Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life during the Second World War.
page 11. ‘Dolly Scannell’s baby …’: Dorothy Scannell, Dolly’s War.
page 11. ‘Kathleen Hale’s husband …’: Kathleen Hale, A Slender Reputation.
page 11. ‘Virginia Graham ordered …’: Janie Hampton, ed., Joyce and Ginnie: The Letters of Joyce Grenfell and Virginia Graham.
pages 11–12. ‘Edna Hughes from Liverpool …’: cited in Colin and Eileen Townsend, War Wives: A Second World War Anthology.
page 12. ‘Some are learning to be cooks …’: Woman’s Own, 9 September 1939.
page 12. ‘a popular perception of the ATS …’: see Lucy Noakes, Women in the British Army: War and the Gentle Sex 1907–1948.
page 13. ‘Patience admits …’: PC-H/A.
page 13. ‘Twenty-four-year-old Verily Bruce …’: VA/A; VA/SPAM.
pages 13–15. ‘Frances Faviell, thirty-seven …’: FF/CHELSEA.
page 15. ‘Helen Forrester was also aware …’: HF/L’POOL.
page 16. ‘Joan Wyndham was busy …’: JW/LL.
page 16. ‘Another woman recollected …’: cited in Norman Longmate, ed., The Home Front: An Anthology of Personal Experience 1938–1945.
pages 17–18. ‘Helen Vlasto, on holiday with her family …’: HL/CI.
page 17. ‘Nature is providing …’: cited in Longmate, ed., The Home Front.
page 18. ‘Sixteen-year-old Pip Beck …’: PB/PP.
page 18. ‘Phyllis Noble was “very scared” …’: PW/CCA.
page 18. ‘I get emotional remembering it …’: MD/A.
page 18. ‘one sixteen-year-old …’: cited in Longmate, ed., The Home Front.
page 18. ‘Another – in the middle …’: LK/MD.
pages 18–19. ‘Marguerite Eave had just moved …’: MP/A.
page 19. ‘Frances Faviell, who …’: FF/CHELSEA.
pages 19–20. ‘In Streatham, Pat Bawland …’: author interview with Pat Evans, née Bawland, 2008.
pages 20–21. ‘forty-nine-year-old housewife Nella Last …’: NL/NLW.
page 21. ‘Patience Chadwyck-Healey …’: PC-H/A.
pages 21–2. ‘Frances Faviell watched carloads …’: FF/CHELSEA.
page 22. ‘fourteen-year-old Nina Mabey …’: NB/TIME.
pages 22–3. ‘the Forrester family were visited …’: HF/L’POOL.
page
23. ‘Mrs Lilian Roberts …’: see www.wartimememories.co.uk.
pages 23–4. ‘The diarist Frances Partridge …’: FP/PW.
pages 24–5. ‘The Women’s Voluntary Service …’: see Charles Graves, Women in Green: The Story of the W.V.S.; see also James Hinton, Women, Social Leadership and the Second World War: Continuities of Class.
page 25. ‘Rene Smith, a respectable newlywed …’: cited in Townsend and Townsend, War Wives.
page 25. ‘The Tyson family …’: see Ben Wicks, No Time to Wave Goodbye.
page 26. ‘Nina Mabey was primarily dismayed …’: NB/TIME.
page 26. ‘Despite much kindness …’: HF/L’POOL.
page 26. ‘Our familiar world …’: PW/CAW.
pages 26–8. ‘Nella Last recorded …’: NL/NLW.
page 28. ‘A woman spotted …’: MP-D/NY.
page 28. ‘One young woman literally bumped …’: cited in Townsend and Townsend, War Wives.
page 28. ‘the housewife Clara Milburn …’: CM/MM.
pages 28–9. ‘the writer and journalist Mollie Panter-Downes …’: MP-D/NY.
page 29. ‘This war really isn’t at all bad …’: JW/LL.
page 29. ‘Clara Milburn noted …’: CM/MM.
page 30. ‘a speech broadcast on the wireless …’: cited in introduction to Joyce Grenfell: The Time of My Life, Entertaining the Troops – Her Wartime Journals, ed. James Roose-Evans.
pages 30–31. ‘In a St Albans store …’: MO.
page 31. ‘there were still croissants …’: JW/LL.
page 31. ‘music teacher Mary Cornish …’: author interviews with Elizabeth Paterson (Mary Cornish’s niece), 2009, and Maggie Paterson (niece-in-law), 2009.
pages 31–2. ‘Vera Welch’s career …’: author interview with Dame Vera Lynn, 2009.
page 32. ‘Marguerite Eave found herself …’: MP/A.
pages 32–6. ‘Helen Forrester was one …’: HF/L’POOL.
page 35. ‘For Frances Faviell in Chelsea …’: FF/CHELSEA.
page 36. ‘trainee beautician Monica Littleboy …’: MS/MEM.
pages 36–7. ‘the story of Anne Popham …’: AP/A.
page 37. ‘Young Pip Beck …’: PB/PP.
page 37. ‘Frances Campbell-Preston …’: Frances Campbell-Preston, The Rich Spoils of Time.
page 38. ‘For fifteen year-old Pat Bawland …’: author interview with Pat Evans, née Bawland, 2008.
page 38. ‘Kay Mellis in Edinburgh …’: KW/A.
pages 38–9. ‘the King spoke to the nation …’: cited in FF/CHELSEA.
Chapter 2: All Our Prayers
page 40. ‘Madeleine Henrey felt …’: MH/FARM.
pages 40–42 ‘Lorna Bradey, aged twenty-four …’: LK/MD.
pages 43–5. ‘Clara Milburn was exasperated …’: CM/MM.
pages 44–5. ‘the novelist Barbara Pym …’: Barbara Pym, A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Letters and Diaries.
pages 45–6. ‘Frances Faviell went …’: FF/CHELSEA.
pages 46–7. ‘Joan Wyndham, aged seventeen …’: JW/LL.
page 48. ‘Everyone is getting married …’: cited in Sandra Koa Wing, ed., Our Longest Days: A People’s History of the Second World War.
page 48. ‘Randolph Churchill …’: in Eric Taylor, Forces Sweethearts: Service Romances in World War II.
page 48. ‘Margery Berney was another …’: MB/NGS
page 49. ‘Eileen Hunt made her way …’: BBC/PW, article ID: A4056914.
page 49. ‘Women want to be partners …’: cited in Jane Waller and Michael Vaughan-Rees, Women in Wartime: The Role of Women’s Magazines 1939–45.
page 49. ‘Miss E. de Langlois … Mrs Gilroy … Mrs Hope …’: all in Daily Sketch, May 1940.
page 50. ‘WAR WORKERS’ SUNDAY DASH …’: Daily Sketch, 27 May 1940.
page 50. ‘Mass Observation took …’: in Dorothy Sheridan, ed., Wartime Women: An Anthology of Women’s Wartime Writing for Mass Observation 1937–45.
page 50. ‘A BLACK DAY …’: in ibid.
pages 50–51. ‘So cruel …’: in ibid.
pages 51–3. ‘The writer Naomi Mitchison …’: NM/NOTES.
pages 52–3. ‘Frances Partridge, also …’: FP/PW.
pages 53–5. ‘On 20 May QA Lorna Bradey …’: LK/MD.
page 55. ‘Mrs Milburn heard …’: CM/MM.
page 55. ‘For the 224,585 British troops …’: figure from Robert Goralski, World War II Almanac 1931–1945: A Political and Military Record.
page 56. ‘Peggy Priestman …’: BBC/PW, article ID: A4051018.
page 56. ‘VAD Lucilla Andrews …’: Lucilla Andrews, No Time for Romance.
page 56. ‘Kathy Kay’s platoon …’: BBC/PW, article ID: A2278389.
pages 56–7. ‘Mary Angove was another … ’: MD/A.
page 57. ‘WAAF Joan Davis …’: BBC/PW, article, ID: A4052413.
pages 57–9. ‘In Villers-sur-Mer …’: MH/FARM.
pages 59–60. ‘But the ordeal …’: LK/MD.
pages 60–61: ‘Clara Milburn heard … ’: CM/MM.
page 61. ‘Frances Campbell-Preston …’: Campbell-Preston, The Rich Spoils of Time.
page 61. ‘News was even slower …’: BC/YO.
page 61. ‘Today I have just heard …’: CM/MM.
page 62. ‘Is it any good fighting …’: Mass Observation diarist Muriel Green, in Sheridan, ed., Wartime Women.
page 62. ‘an office worker …’: cited in Longmate, How We Lived Then.
page 62. ‘Nella Last was listening …’: NL/NLW.
page 62. ‘In Essex …’: cited in Joshua Levine, ed., Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle for Britain.
page 62. ‘Naomi Mitchison had given …’: NM/NOTES.
page 63. ‘Do not believe rumours …’: cited in FF/CHELSEA.
page 63. ‘the publicity picture …’: Daily Sketch, 19 June 1940.
pages 63–4. ‘What General Weygand …’: see F. W. Heath, ed., A Churchill Anthology – Selections from the Writings and Speeches of Sir Winston Churchill.
page 64. ‘When people have decried [him] …’: Joan Seaman, cited in Levine, Forgotten Voices.
page 64. ‘We would really …’: Joan Varley, cited in ibid.
page 64. ‘Every man and woman …’: The Times, 19 June 1940.
pages 64–8. ‘WAAF Aileen Morris …’: AC/ENEMY.
Chapter 3: Wreckage
pages 69–70. ‘Helen Forrester was …’: HF/L’POOL.
pages 70–72. ‘Sonia Wilcox …’: information supplied by Jonathan Keates.
page 72. ‘Shirley Hook’s wedding plans …’: MO.
pages 72–5. ‘Verily Bruce’s otherwise …’: VA/A; VA/SPAM.
pages 75–7. ‘Helen Forrester and Harry O’Dwyer …’: HF/L’POOL.
pages 77–81. ‘The story of Mary Cornish …’: Elspeth Huxley, Atlantic Ordeal; Tom Nagorski, Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of the U-boat attack on the SS City of Benares – One of the Great Lost Stories of WWII; Janet Menzies, Children of the Doomed Voyage; Mary Cornish’s private papers in the possession of Maggie Paterson; author interviews with Maggie Paterson and Elizabeth Paterson.
pages 81–2. ‘Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief …’: cited in John Keegan, The Second World War.
page 82. ‘Joan Tagg, aged fifteen …’: JT/A.
page 82. ‘In London, Sheila Hails …’: SH-J/A.
page 82. ‘Virginia Woolf described …’: The Diaries of Virginia Woolf, vol. 5, ed. Anne Olivier Bell, entry dated Friday 16 August 1940.
pages 82–3. ‘Frances Faviell and her fiancé …’: FF/CHELSEA.
pages 83–4. ‘Virginia Woolf had written an essay …’: Virginia Woolf, ‘Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid’, from The Death of the Moth and Other Essays.
page 85. ‘Charles Graves, the historian …’: Graves, Women in Green.
page 85. ‘Tea became the common healer …’: Hilde Marchant, Women and Children Last – A Woman Reporte
r’s Account of the Battle of Britain.
page 85. ‘Yorkshire farmer’s wife …’: see Eric Taylor, Heroines of World War II.
page 86. ‘Albert Powell from Lewisham …’: Margaret Powell, Climbing the Stairs.
pages 86–7. ‘Phyllis Noble decided …’: PW/CAW, PW/CCA.
page 87. ‘Magnificently terrifying …’: MH/LONDON.
page 87. ‘A lethal fairyland …’: Agnes Fish, Recollections of Farnsworth and Kearsley 1900–1945.
page 87. ‘the female shelterers went prepared …’: see Doris Barry in Mavis Nicholson, What Did You Do in the War, Mummy?Women in World War II.
page 87. ‘Woman’s Own readers …’: cited in Waller and Vaughan-Rees, Women in Wartime.
pages 87–8. ‘Two young Bermondsey women …’: Ruth Durrant, contributor to The Wartime Memories Project website www.wartimememories.co.uk/women.html.
page 88. ‘The indefatigable Mass Observers …’: cited in Tom Harrisson, Living through the Blitz.
page 88. ‘Air-raid warden Barbara Nixon …’: Barbara Nixon, Raiders Overhead: A Diary of the London Blitz.
page 88. ‘One woman nightly drank …’: cited FF/CHELSEA.
page 88. ‘Flo Mahony’s brand …’: FM/A.
page 88. ‘I’m ill …’ [and other quotations]: cited by Harrisson, Living through the Blitz.
page 88. ‘63,000 of them …’: statistics cited in Harold L. Smith, ‘The Effects of War on the Status of Women’, in H. L. Smith, ed., War and Social Change – British Society in the Second World War.
pages 88–9. ‘One woman had to be taken …’: Marchant, Women and Children Last.
page 89. ‘The writer Fiona MacCarthy …’: Fiona MacCarthy, Last Curtsey – The End of the Debutantes.
pages 89–90. ‘One of those who moved in …’: Diana Cooper, Trumpets from the Steep.
page 90. ‘Restaurants and dancing …’: VA/SPAM.
page 90. ‘The best swing band …’: JW/LL.
pages 90–91. ‘While London blazed, Mary Cornish …’: Mary Cornish’s private papers in the possession of Maggie Paterson; author interviews with Maggie Paterson and Elizabeth Paterson.
pages 91–3. ‘In 1939 Frances Faviell …’: FF/CHELSEA.
pages 93–4. ‘Barbara Nixon encountered … ’: Barbara Nixon, Raiders Overhead.
page 94. ‘For Edith …’: BBC/PW, article ID: A2499519.
page 94. ‘Dianna Dobinson’s flat …’: BBC/PW, article ID: A1127549.
page 94. ‘Seventeen-year-old Londoner …’: author interview with Cora Williams, née Styles, 2008.
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