Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of 'Housewife, 49' [Paperback]

Having seen Victoria Wood's wonderful period drama last year, Father Christmas heard my request and kindly brought me the book.

I have deliberately taken several weeks to read it because I wanted to savour and enjoy it to the full.

We are so lucky that Nella Last decided to join the Mass Observation Project as she had a natural talent for writing about the everyday "nitty gritty" of the war years. Even though most of us will have heard stories from parents and grandparents about life in the war, inevitably they will be dominated by what the men did. This is wartime life on a daily basis as seen through the eyes of a middle-aged woman who happily writes about everything - shopping, cooking, worrying about her sons, her health, her inexhaustible wish to "do something", sleep deprivation, sex (yes, sex!) - it's all there. Obviously the MOP sent out questionnaires from time to time requesting particular information, but Nella uses her diary to chronicle her innermost thoughts with a very heavy emphasis on her marriage, her undying love for her boys and especially "a woman's lot". She could see that when the war was over (assuming that Germany did not win) life would be very different for young women about to embark on marriage. They would not be happy to spend their entire life fitting everything in around their husband's wishes and needs and she was very envious of this.

She does not give many details regarding her life before the Second World War but it is very easy to read between the lines and realise that her bouts of ill health and depression were obviously very strongly linked to a dominent and domineering husband and in-laws.

However, the war is the making of Nella as she demonstrates again and again her various artistic talents, her inexhaustible energy and her undying positive and optimistic spirit - at least when other people are present.

I loved this book so much for its honesty, detail and courage and was so very sad when I reached the end. I bought it as a birthday present for one friend and have lent my copy to another, by the time I get it back I will probably read it again!

Without a doubt this has got to be one of the most wonderful, thought provoking, emotional yet rewarding books I've ever read. There wasn't a single part of this book I didn't like, I wanted to savour every bit of it. Nella Last is someone who I came to greatly admire. She was resourceful, kind, helpful and very sensitive and thoughtful.
She always strived to do the best by her family and look after others - and despite her own nerves, depression and anxiety she did a sterling job. I felt such empathy with her when she described her anxieties, her tears and her down days - even though our experiences are poles and decades apart - nothing really changes in the human psyche.
I loved her vivid descriptions of the food she cooked, how she scrimped and saved and put by and still managed to create all these nourishing meals so that her husband and her sons didn't go hungry. How she found time to do all she did is a mystery, but she did it and it was people like her that kept our country going.
I'm really sorry to have finished the book and not have any more of it to read such was the quality of the writing. I felt as though I knew all the family, and was party to so many secrets.
I can't really find enough superlatives to describe it - a required read for anyone interested in history or anything to do with the Wars. Nella's beautifully honed prose is a delight to read, and something that Victoria Wood also captured beautifully in her reworking of the diary for TV.

In a time when families were being ripped apart, friends and their children were being killed and you didn't know what the future would bring Nella Last detailed every emotional day. My heart went out to her and women like her, who must have wondered what was happening to the world. Apart from detailing everything from recipes, shopping lists and her work at the centre and shop, it tells us of her hopes for future generations, how her heart goes out to other nationalities including the german mothers who were loosing their sons too. She has a modern mind, quite the opposite of what you would think of a 50 year old woman in the early 1940's. Non judgemental and always looking on the bright side despite her own personal battle with nerves and a domineering husband.

She is an inspiration to modern women, how well would we cope in the same austerity and daily horror?