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We Are At War: The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times
 
 
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We Are At War: The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times [Paperback]

Simon Garfield
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Frequently Bought Together

We Are At War: The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times + Our Hidden Lives: The Remarkable Diaries of Postwar Britain + Wartime Women: A Mass Observation Anthology: A Mass-observation Anthology of Women's Writings, 1937-1945 (Women In History)
Price For All Three: £18.57

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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Ebury Press; New Ed edition (2 Mar 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0091903874
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091903879
  • Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 2.5 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 59,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Simon Garfield
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Product Description

Review

"'Snowdrops have been in flower for weeks. Violets are still waiting to bloom. Broad beans are showing their heads perkily. But I forget. We are at war. The boys in the village are leaving one by one.' Maggie Joy Blunt * 'A lovely book. It will appeal to anyone who appreciates the richness and diversity of human experience' - Tony Benn * 'I haven't read a more engrossing book in years' - John Carey, Sunday Times * 'A quite magical store of voices from another age' - Observer"

Mail on Sunday

"Almost every entry has its poignant or fascinating moments...makes our wartime past seem no more distant than yesterday."

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
69 of 70 people found the following review helpful
A real time-machine! 28 Nov 2005
Format:Hardcover
The unfolding drama of wartime life is captured faithfully in these first-hand accounts. I wonder what would be the reaction of the diarists to know that in sixty years time their submissions to Mass Observation would be printed and made into a book. I suspect they would secretly be quite pleased that their efforts would be enjoyed by future generations - a kind of immortality. I was particularly moved by Christopher Tomlin's honest descriptions of the struggle to keep his family afloat financially while coping with the anxiety and sleeplessness of incipient invasion. A different world indeed.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Enthralling 30 Dec 2007
By Helena
Format:Paperback
I read each person's account seperately, as they were becoming muddled in my mind. I was struck by the differences between four of the diarists and "Eileen Potter". Why was she included I wonder? All the others had fascinating, interesting tales to tell of their ordinary lives. Hers, by comparison was very dull and was also the most incomplete. With the other four I felt I knew them and had a deep interest in how they ended up in life.

Reading the four complete diaries was an engrossing experience. How different these people were to each other and how similar they are to people today. Nothing much changes, does it? I see that there is another book just published and I shall be buying that one, too.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Continuing the thread begun in Hidden Lives, Simon Garfield offers selections from the Mass-Observation Project diaries of five people caught up in the preparations and then the beginning of the infamous Blitz. The uncertainty, the anger, the fear; it's all here and it leaps off of the pages in a way that keeps you turning them.

Sometimes the diarists are not particularly likeable - you encounter racism and defeatist attitudes at certain points. But that is something that makes this volume particularly interesting. Knowing that these pages are going to be read by others, the diarists are still painfully honest in their fears and their prejudices. Very enlightening, and highly recommended, especially as a companion volume to Hidden Lives.
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