There is something about winter and especially a deep freeze that makes me put a brand spanking new Lovecraft letters collection on the the Lovecraft memorial shelf and grab a cozy British read instead. Yes, I will eventually read volume 2 of the Lovecraft/Derleth letters but right now? I’m looking at a Nestle Aero bar and trying to figure out how much of a person’s chocolate ration it is. Thoughts like this  bubble right up when you’ve read a World War II book  like Joyce Dennys’ Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945. Granted, Henrietta and Charles would be much likely more interested in the state of our liquor cabinet versus my Aero bar stash. And I’m quite certain that would be the case for Henrietta old childhood friend Robert, still fighting in the war. However, since Blacklight and I only have beer, some very dry sherry, tequila and tiny flavored vodkas, they might very well be disappointed.

And sadly, Henrietta, Charles and Robert aren’t the only ones who might be disappointed. Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 collects more of Henrietta’s letters to Robert full of village life and gossip. There’s a Visitor clad in an outdated uniform who Henrietta and Mrs Savernack think must be a spy. Actually? The dear man is reduced to his old uniform as one of his few decent outfits after the twin impacts of the Blitz and his family using his clothing coupons.Henrietta deals with The Garden and her desire to do useful work for the war effort. Lady B is still her marvelous brick of wonderful, worried about elastic becoming scare (this is one dear lady who understands the value of a proper undergarment) and wanting to bash Hitler and mother Henrietta, Charles and the Linnet all at once. Faith and her long suffering Conductor marry and become parents to the delightful baby No-well (Noel) born on Christmas Day. And the War comes to an end.

But like the now empty Aero bar wrapper next to me on Mr Couch, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 ends much too soon. Unlike the first Henrietta collection, the missing letters do leave a jarring hole in the narrative. At one point we learn the Linnet has gotten engaged and then it seems the next time we see the Linnet she is a married lady who still can’t quite believe she is married. To be very frank, I would have loved to know more about the Linnet’s wedding versus Faith and the Conductor’s wedding. Of course Faith’s wedding is perfect and lovely and wonderful. It’s Faith. She could get the Archbishop of Canterbury to give her clothing coupons for stockings. I wanted to see Henrietta, wonderful Henrietta with her flaws and gawkiness be mother of the bride versus Faith plotting to have her wedding at the church that’s most flattering to her complexion. Faith annoys me just as much as the perfection of Eden annoyed me in A Dark-Adapted Eye. I want to see more of Henrietta’s struggles to get evacuees of her very own. If the missing letters are still floating around somewhere in a back issue of the Sketch, they need to be included in any re-issue.

What I do love about Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 are the tiny glimpses we get into what life at the Home Front was truly like. Henrietta goes to get a new paintbrush and there’s just huge brushes and tiny brushes. What is the artist Henrietta to do? The revelation Henrietta is an artist (did we ever have that stated in either book?) gives new light to her tearing through her rag bag to get just the right colors to paste on the windows in the first book (has Charles ever forgiven her for using his best/favorite pajamas with the heavenly blue color?) or her helping Lady B recreate a hat seen in a local shop window using bird feathers and colored inks. And let’s not forget her quite clever make do and mend turning an old pair of pajama pants into a stylish blouse straight out a Ministry of Information pamphlet. Even little things like the tailor getting fresh measurements for Charles when he gets a new coat reminds the reader life for the British, even in a delightful and warm village like Henrietta’s, rationing’s effect on the body. Rationing didn’t starve you but it was certainly hard to maintain too much excess flesh when your monthly chocolate ration could be as low as 1 ounce per person. And yes, I devoured over a month’s chocolate ration without thinking at the beginning of this review.

Even with it’s flaws (those missing letters! Just how missing are they? <sigh>) Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 is a must read. I am ready to raid my sewing stash and hop in a time machine to make sure Lady B has all the elastic she needs for her corsets. I’ll even bring her some Flexees shape-wear. And some paintbrushes for Henrietta too! Wait…I better bring the very dry sherry for Charles (we only use the sherry to make Seafood Newburg because I didn’t realize cooking sherry existed, yes I am dim). Tins of fancy dog food for Mr Perry and Fay? Faith? Ehh…let the Conductor rustle up stockings and lippie for her. But I will bring a book for Baby No-Well. And if Jennifer Worth’s Call the Midwife books can be turned into a lovely television show, why not the Henrietta books? I would be glued to PBS for that in a heartbeat.