Authors: Virginia Nicholson
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