Category: World War II

The Two Mrs Abbotts

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

Ever put down Miss Buncle Married and wondered what our old friend Barbara is up to now? I mean, it’s Barbara Buncle Abbott we’re talking about. She must have been up to delicious adventures…

Well, there is a third book in the Miss Buncle series, The Two Mrs Abbotts. Unless you had a very good library system or the luck of the gods at a used bookstore then you had to wonder. Luckily, the local library system was able to unearth The Two Mrs Abbotts but I was only able to get my little undead raccoon hands on it after Sourcebooks Landmark re-issued The Two Mrs Abbotts in trade paperback last month… <sigh>

When you first pick up The Two Mrs Abbotts, you might be tempted to shriek “Oh my gods! There’s two of them!?!?!?!”. Calm down. Of course there’s two Mrs Abbotts. Barbara married to the successful publisher Arthur Abbott and Jerry married to Arthur Abbott’s nephew Sam. Remember? Sam fell head over heels for Jerry in Miss Buncle Married. When we re-discovered our friends, it’s World War II and out of all the houses to host Sarah Walker (the doctor’s wife and who Silverstream thought was John Smith in Miss Buncle’s Book) during a Red Cross talk is the comfortable Abbott home. Sarah sees a picture and figures out her Red Cross talk hostess is the former Barbara Buncle in less time than it takes me to devour an Aero classic chocolate (seconds) while the former Barbara Buncle is her usual delightful confused self and almost needs a diagram to figure everything out. Arthur hasn’t been called up but his nephew Sam is in the army leaving his wife Jerry to batch it at their Elizabethan home.

Now let me address one of the most common complaints about The Two Mrs Abbotts. There are two major ones but I’ll address that later. The most common complaint and one that seems to have people scarlet is, for the book being called The Two Mrs Abbotts, you sure don’t get much of the senior Mrs Abbott (Barbara). This might make a devoted Barbara Buncle follower stop reading this post and declare me a total savage but I actually like getting Barbara Buncle Abbott in small doses. Her presence provides a support or frame for overall story but I don’t need it to be all Barbara all the time. The opening scene chez Abbott with Sarah Walker is delightful even though the Abbott children are just a bit too twee for my tastes. Even the best of the Miss Buncle books, Miss Buncle’s Book, is strongest when Barbara isn’t front and center. Barbara is like the almond extract in my favorite Lindt truffles, a few drops go a long, long way. Full on Barbara would be like licking the almond extract spoon when I make almond crescents. Gross and overwhelming.

But back to the goings on in war time Wandlebury. While life with the senior Abbotts doesn’t seem to be that much affected by the war, unless you count Arthur Abbott having Janetta Walters as an author with his publishing company. Given his reaction to her offerings, romances, I kept wondering if D.E. Stevenson was a having a poke at Georgette Heyer or Angela Thirkell. If she was parodying Georgette Heyer, that’s a laugh because you know how I thought the will plot in Miss Buncle Married was quite Georgette Heyer mystery-ish and had to double check to make sure I was reading D.E. Stevenson. Or I could just being having one of my Crazy Literary Theories. Why so mad about poor Janetta Walters, hmm Arthur?

Things are much different for the other Mrs Abbott. Sam’s off at war, and Jerry doesn’t have two darling moppets in her nursery being tended by Markie. Jerry and Markie are dealing with the stomp stomp stomp of combat boots from the local military camp that have turned Jerry’s kitchen into their clubhouse. And instead of trying to give Cook orders for dinner, Jerry is trying to keep an eye on her loathsome evacuees in the cottage down the way. Mama Evacuee is a blowsy bish who longs to go back home more than I longed for her to be off the page. D.E. Stevenson seems to “care” for evacuees as much as Angela Thirkell does. Then again in these ladies novels, horses and dogs always come off better than the lowest classes.

Mama Evacuee goes back to her sluttish lair dragged her spawn with her and before Markie can get the evacuee stink out of the cottage, evacuee spawn Elmie (government name Wilhelmina) is back and wants to better her life. And Jerry gets a paying guest Jane who has the most unflattering mannish haircut and no clue about housework. While Jerry tries to puzzle out Jane and see if she would make a good wife candidate for her brother Archie, the cottage gets the right kind of tenant, Colonel Melton from the military camp and his doting daughter Melanie.

Jerry wonders if Melanie should be in the running for Archie. But Archie has his own ideas and we find out Jane is actually the author Janetta Walters. I’m not sure if it’s because my main complaint about The Two Mrs Abbotts (in short…the book is too damn short and the plot is letting hanging in too many places) but even my stuffed Beanie Baby sized Minecraft Creeper figured out Jane=Janetta Walters. But I’ll forgive D.E. Stevenson for not making it harder to figure this out because she does give the reader a little plot straight out of the best Nancy Drew stories.

There are rumors of a spy lurking around Wandlebury. The military camp is on high alert and at one point thinks Elmie/Wilhelmina’s father on a mission to drag her back to their slum home is the spy. If the Germans did manage to invade? Mr Boles (Elmie/Wilhelmina’s father) is the exact sort that would be dealing with the Germans or on the black market. In my head? Mr Boles is Steve Buscemi at his most rough and weaselly.

Then one day on a walk, Markie, who is deaf but not stupid in the least even though she will not go to the damn doctor and find out if she has cancer or not already, stumbles across a man sleeping in the words. Markie takes one look at him, decides he’s German by the shape of his head, snatches up his gun and leads the military camp to him. Everyone is all “ohhh silly Markie” and then our sleepy hottie (played in my head by a blonde Michael Fassbender) wakes up and speaks in German. Markie is all “don’t be scared, and no sudden moves because we’re got your gun. I’m not kidding”. And then everyone is all “Damn…you go Markie!” Nancy Drew could not have done it better. Wait, Nancy Drew would have used her handkerchief, her spare handkerchiefs and her leather belt wrapped around her slender waist to tie up the “sleeping hottie”.

Now to my main complaint with The Two Mrs Abbotts. This book is much too short!!! The plot needs, no demands, at least 75 more pages to finish everything properly. There is one part where we see what the war is like for Sam, in his eyes and BAMMM! We’re back in Wandlebury and never see him again. I wanted more about Helen (Jane’s sister) taking over as Janetta Walters. I wanted to see if the creepy vibe I got from Colonel Melton and Melanie was just my fevered imagination and if Lancastre  Marvell could snake her away from Daddy Dearest. An abrupt ending like the one in The Two Mrs Abbotts is all fine and good for an Angela Thirkell novel since she churned out her Barsetshire series forever and a day. But unless you’re doing an epic and never ending series? Don’t do this. Seriously. Either write the book long enough to finish things off or don’t bother if it’s a one off. Then again? Didn’t I have the same it ended to damn soon problem with D.E. Stevenson’s Celia’s House? Feeling the book I was reading felt like a warmup or first half of a novel versus a whole novel.

The Two Mrs Abbotts is certainly worth reading even if the blasted thing is much too short. D.E. Stevenson captures certain wartime experiences to a t like when the Wandleburyrites marvel over an egg. Yes, the same things you can snap up for $1.49 a dozen at Aldis. But remember, in World War II England? Even in the country,  fresh eggs were like gold. And there were recipes even more gag worthy floating around than the cake the ladies make at Jerry’s or Markie’s recipe for macaroni cheese. I would not recommend reading The Two Mrs Abbotts as a standalone book because you truly need to have the other two Miss Buncle novels under your belt to get the best out of a much too short novel.

Theater Shoes

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

The weather is slowing getting a tinier bit warmer but once I get home from Company X and feed the spouse? It’s off to curl up on the bed with a book.

Well, at least the plan is to read but mostly I wake up a few hours later with the edge of a book pressed on my cheek.

Not exactly the best look ever…Now during those brief moments before I drift off into Dreamland I’ve been reading cozy books like Noel Streatfeild’s 1944 Theater Shoes (published in the UK as Curtain Up).

Like just about every other Noel Streatfeild’s children’s’ book, Theater Shoes features a family of children who through circumstances shed their everyday (i.e. boring) lives and discover a world of creativity and a whole new way of life.

It’s World War II England and the Forbes children (Sorrel, Mary and Holly) have been uprooted from their cozy existence living with their widowed former Naval officer father in Guernsey once the Germans came calling. Mr Forbes joins the Navy and entrusts his motherless children to his pastor father and his housekeeper Hannah.

Since this is war and it is a Noel Streatfeild children’s’ book, Mr Forbes goes missing in the Pacific and then Reverend Forbes (a very vague man who barely remembers he even has grandchildren dies). Oh what will happen to the Forbes?

If you’re thinking the Forbes end up a children’s home or are parceled out around their late grandfather’s parish, bad reader! Bad! The children find out their late mother was a member of the Warren family, one of the most illustrious and amazing theatrical families in England. It’s like finding out you’re a Barrymore or a Booth. Apparently, the Forbes have never meet their Warren relations because their mother ran off and married their father vs the husband chosen for her.

But there isn’t a book if the Forbes don’t go to London and explore their Warren heritage so off Sorrel, Mark, Holly and Hannah go.

Once in London, things aren’t the best for the Forbes. Their Warren grandmother lives in her own little glamorous world barely acknowledging there is a war or that life outside the theater exists. In my head? Grandmother Warren (aka Margaret Shaw) is played by Dame Maggie Smith and says theater “thea-a-tah” like she’s channeling a drunken Bette Davis. Now the Forbes children have been gently raised and are SHOCKED! Shocked I tell you by everything around them.

First off, their late mother’s room is a creepy shrine while the rest of the house that Grandmother Warren never ventures in has been stripped bare, the furnishings sold to pay bills. Their aunts and uncles help out Grandmother Warren but they have their own issues. And the Forbes children are going to go to theater school. Because heaven forbid a Warren not be talented and amazing. Even duds like Aunt Lindsey and Aunt Marguerite go on stage.

And the only school good enough for the Warren/Forbes? Madame Fidolia’s Children’s Academy of Dancing and Stage Training.

What?

Did you think they would end up at Cora Wintle’s school? 🙂

If at this point you’re tempted to roll your eyes and put down Theater Shoes, keep reading. Ever wanted to know what happened to the Fossil sisters? Well, Pauline is huge Hollywood star, Petrova is flying for the war effort and Posy is safely in Hollywood too, dancing in movies and wanting to re-create a ballet troupe. And remember Pauline’s rival for parts? The ugly but clever Winifred in the mustard frock? She’s teaching at the Academy now alongside Theo Dane, Miss Jay and the rest.

Of course, the Warren talent is in the Forbes children and the Fossil sisters “adopt” them with Pauline sponsoring Sorrel, Petrova sponsoring Mark and Posy sponsoring Holly even though Holly can barely dance. One of my favorite parts about this? Besides Petrova being all “dude here’s a screwdriver for a present” is the provision that the Forbes children get pocket money. Pocket money sounds so much cooler than an allowance. I’m going to call my Ladies Nice Things Account my pocket money from now on. But even better than pocket money? The Forbes have some Warren cousins who also attend the Academy and the Warren cousins are so much cooler than their dull Forbes relations. Isn’t sorrel something sheep eat? <shakes self awake>

Once you’ve read enough Noel Streatfeild things, you stumble across the trope of a child being destined to follow a certain path. Skating Shoes‘ Lalla Moore is being groomed to fill her dead skating champion father’s shoes. Dancing Shoes has Rachel becoming an actor like her late father and Hillary’s late adoptive mother wanting her to attend the Royal Ballet school because Hillary’s biological mother was a dancer. And let’s not forget Dancing Shoes’ Dulcie Wintle and Ballet Shoes‘ Posy Fossil almost dancing out of the womb. And imagine if one of David and Polly Forum’s brood didn’t have a lick of talent?

Sorrel and Holly have inherited the Warren talents and of course they will find a life in theater. But Mark? He might like just like Sir Joshua Warren but he’s future Navy and resists anyone telling him he is the least bit Warren. I find Mark boring and wish he had been packed off to school far far far away from London. Because damn…thank goodness for Cousin Miriam (one of the few Streatfeild characters with amazing talents who you don’t want to smack into next week) and Cousin Miranda who I would love to see in a cage match with Dulcie Wintle over a part circa 1959. Noel Streatfeild is so good at writing these quite talented and lovely little bitches in training.

But for every scene of Sorrel worrying about Mark getting into the right school so he can join the Navy (don’t care more Miriam and Miranda please!), the reader gets a little slice of life in wartime London. The growing lack of variety in food, how hard it is to manage decent clothes on coupons, consumer goods disappearing unless you have oceans of ready money.  Money might have been tight for the Fossils growing up but hey pawn your necklaces to your boarder and you can take that five pounds, go to Harrods and get a velvet dress in less time than it takes me to explain to Blacklight why his Facebook feed is blowing up about football on Super Bowl weekend. There simply isn’t the money or clothing coupons to replace a shabby outgrown dress for Sorrel until Aunt Lindsey is able whip up a dress by cutting down one of her evening frocks. Cousin Miriam looks wonderful in a white fur coat but I really hope she likes that coat because she’s going to have to wear it even when the sleeves creep up her arms and the fur dries out and sheds everywhere like the Reverend’s leopard gloves in a Fairacre novel. And your sweet ration? I really hope Pauline can keep sending those chocolates from America…

Of course, everything comes out right in the end. Even if the longed for brawl between Miranda and Sorrel in a dressing room never happens. I really wanted costumes crushed, powder and makeup smeared, telegrams and boxes of chocolate flung all over the place. Because that would be amazing and so not Noel Streatfeild. Or should I say everything comes out right-ish because the war is still ongoing. And if you know your history, things are about to get much rougher for the British citizens. It’s not my all time favorite Noel Streatfeild children’s book, but it’s certain in my Noel Streatfeild Top 5 and if any of my step-nieces showed the least interest in something that wasn’t Disney (highly doubtful)  I would buy them their very own copies of Theater Shoes in heartbeat.

Henrietta Sees It Through

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

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.

 

 

 

What the Devil is A Clothing Coupon?

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

I’m at work, stacks of printouts growing taller and taller on my desk and listening to Kate Macdonald’s Why I Really This This Book (p.s. it’s brilliant and if you love older books you need to listen to this podcast ASAP) when I found myself nodding and saying out loud as one of the very handsome IT guys from next door strode by my desk “Oh I have so been there…wait…so I’ve been using context clues in reading?” Because like Kate trying to figure out sledding and what delightful goodies Katy’s family sent her at school, I’ve been using context clues to figure out concepts in all the older British novels that seem to make up more and more of my reading. But context clues can only take you so far. Sometimes…well sometimes you need more. And I need to remember that very handsome IT guys walk by my desk ALL THE TIME.

Luckily, earlier reading and having parents who plopped me down in the front of the television with them while they watched Upstairs, Downstairs back in the dark ages (aka the 1970s), Victorian culture doesn’t confuse me as badly as it could to say…Blacklight. Let’s just say whenever I run the vacuum cleaner over my bare toes (shoes are evil) yes I curse the vacuum cleaner but a little voice also says “girl, you could be using a carpet sweeper and used tea leaves and be on your hands and knees”. Or when I blind myself with shampoo in the shower? The little voice “imagine how gross your hair would feel if you couldn’t shampoo it every day? Or had to use soap on it? And no lovely fancy dan conditioner?”. That little voice? Quite wise.

But until I stumbled across certain books, that little voice wasn’t quite so knowledgeable about World War II England. I mean I figured out rationing and clothing coupons thanks to Noel Streatfeild’s Theater Shoes and 1940s House on PBS, but I didn’t realize just how complicated the whole thing was. Now? If my fellow Anglophile coworker ever came over for tea? There would be certain gaps in my bookshelf.

The following books are quite wonderful on their own as social documents of daily life in World War II England and can be purchased from your local bookseller. But they also add a certain “ahhh…oh yes” to reading and re-reading World War II fiction and non fiction. Silly example. Reading Joyce Dennys’ Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945, I wondered how Faith would get a layette together and deal with rations for little No-well (Noel). Well it turns out there are clothing coupons and ration cards to address that very situation.

  • The British Home Front Pocket-Book 1940-1942 from the Ministry of Information. (ISBN 978-1-84486-122-4) A treasure trove of information about everything from rations, evacuation, air raid shelters and more. I now know how to build a shelter in the middle of my living room if need be. (Blacklight: “WHOOO! Fort!”)
  • 101 Things for the Housewife to Do 1949 by Lillie B. and Arthur C. Horth (ISBN 978-0-7134-9056-5) Yes, this from 1949 but remember Britain was still under rationing and restrictions even in this post war time. Make do and mend was still in full force. And after reading the section on growing bulbs? I completely understand the Provincial Lady’s agonies every year.
  • Make Do and Mend: Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations edited by Jill Norman (ISBN 978-1-84317-265-9) Facsimiles of actual Government Ministry leaflets about how to make your clothes last long with proper care and mending. Turns out I haven’t been too far off in my attempts to darn my dad’s socks. And I can totally see Vera from A Dark Adapted Eye reading each one of these pamphlets with the greatest of care before turning two old dresses into a new one or unraveling a sweater to re-use the yarn to make things for the infant Jamie.
  • Eating for Victory: Health Home Front Cooking on War Rations edited by Jill Norman (ISBN 978-1-84317-264-2) Even more facsimiles of Government Ministry leaflets with the focus on food and heating your home. Maybe Faith from Henrietta’s War: New from the Home Front 1939-1942 should have read these instead of lamenting the loss of silk stockings for her amazing and awe inspiring legs? And even though these are British publications, I can see the ladies of “Noah’s Ark”, especially Mrs Rasmussen giving a nod of approval before turning a toothpick, a pinch of salt, a tomato and three broken crackers into a lavish feast fit to build the puny Steve Rogers into a great big buff ripped to all get out Captain America without the super soldier formula.

Right now I have Lillie B. and Arthur C. Horth’s 101 Things to Do in Wartime 1940 on order. And if it’s anything like the above titles? It will be a most welcome addition to my bookshelves.

*what is a clothing coupon? Clothes were subject to rationing in the war. People were issued ration books with clothing points or coupons. You had to give so many coupons plus cash to purchase new shoes or stockings or materials or notions and the like. Used/secondhand clothes didn’t need coupons but had fixed prices.

Henrietta’s War

~ Wendy-Marie ~ Leave a comment

You know you’ve discovered a good book when you mention said book to a coworker and the coworker’s eyes light up while they demand you send them the author’s name and titles ASAP. Another sign your book is a winner? Seeing Coworker’s shoulders slump when you explain “oh golly gee…you can get them from the X and Y libraries…once I return my inter-library loans…”. But Coworker forgives you because they’re just as big an Anglophile as you are.

Now what book had Coworker plotting just how fast I could read and return a certain book? Henrietta’s War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys. I’m not certain I might have stumbled across this little charmer without Amazon’s Customers Also Bought Items By while I was bemoaning  how very budget wrecking snapping up E.M. Delafield on Kindle would be to my wallet. The local library system had a few of Joyce Dennys’ books and the descriptions seemed interesting, so what did I have to lose?

Like her fellow Andre Deutsch Limited author Helene Hanff, Joyce Dennys was doing a spring clean one day when she came across some old writings from World War II. But instead of the relatively anonymous Helene Hanff’s letters to a London book shop, Joyce Dennys’ old writings were from her articles published in each issue of Sketch magazine, letters from an imaginary Doctor’s wife in the countryside writing about life at home to her childhood friend Robert fighting in the war. Our Doctor’s wife, Henrietta is a faithful correspondent, giving Robert all the little details about her daily life with the Doctor (Charles), her two grown children Bill and the Linnet, their dog Perry and all their friends and foes in the village.

I’m very tempted to burble on and on about the charming writing, the rough little sketches in each letter (done by Joyce Dennys herself) that even though they are just rough little sketches, you can get the warm and loving nature of Lady B in all her Helen E. Hokinson like club woman glory and the glamorous divorcee Faith who oozes a magic spell over everyone like a Peter Arno showgirl. So yes, burble I did. Henrietta’s War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 really is truly charming. You get a look at a way of life that is vanishing and how the everyday residents of a seaside village are coping with the upheavals. Liquor is in short supply but Charles manages to scrape up some sherry to offer to Lady B and use the ends of this and that for Christmas cocktails. During Marmalade Week, the residents are wondering how they will make their usual bounty with restrictions on sugar. Village glamor girl Faith has the idea of using saccharine tablets in place of the desired sugar. Her plan is flawed but it’s a plan. But a war isn’t going to keep our villagers from their rounds of visits and parties even if face powder and stockings are soon to be in short supply.

Henrietta’s War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 is a slim book and before you know it, you’ve devoured Henrietta’s letters to Robert and have questions plaguing you. Will Henrietta get to join in war work or is she just doomed to tend house and dig in the garden with a hot water bottle on her back until the war ends? Will Faith’s devoted suitor The Conductor ever get Faith to be all his? Will Lady B keep being the utter rock of grace and sense in wanting to defend her beloved country? But worry not, because there’s a second Henrietta book, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945.