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Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 (Bloomsbury Group)
 
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Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 (Bloomsbury Group) (Paperback)

by Joyce Dennys (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (5 Jul 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 1408802813
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408802816
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 20,475 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Reads like a 1940s Adrian Mole mocking war's little absurdities' The Times 'Warm and funny, but candid and telling too. A real delight!' Karen Howlett, www.cornflower.typepad.com 'I haven't read anything so funny for many years. They rank alongside E M Delafield's The Diary Of A Provincial Lady, and George and Weedon Grossmiths' The Diary of A Nobody' Susan Hill 'Anyone who wants to get the feel of the period (1939-42) must read these short letters' Daily Telegraph


Product Description

Spirited Henrietta wishes she was the kind of doctor's wife who knew exactly how to deal with the daily upheavals of war. But then, everyone in her close-knit Devonshire village seems to find different ways to cope: there's the indomitable Lady B, who writes to Hitler every night to tell him precisely what she thinks of him; the terrifyingly efficient Mrs Savernack, who relishes the opportunity to sit on umpteen committees and boss everyone around; flighty, flirtatious Faith who is utterly preoccupied with the latest hats and flashing her shapely legs; and then there's Charles, Henrietta's hard-working husband who manages to sleep through a bomb landing in their neighbour's garden. With life turned upside down under the shadow of war, Henrietta chronicles the dramas, squabbles and loyal friendships that unfold in her affectionate letters to her 'dear childhood friend' Robert. Warm, witty and perfectly observed, Henrietta's War brings to life a sparkling community of determined troupers who pull together to fight the good fight with patriotic fervour and good humour. Henrietta's War is part of The Bloomsbury Group, a new library of books from the early twentieth-century chosen by readers for readers.
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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3 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars On the home front, 15 Jul 2009
By booksetc (London, UK) - See all my reviews
Delightful little book that you could read in an afternoon.
Originally published as a magazine serial, with Joyce Dennys's own quirky illustrations, this is of the same genre as Diary of a Provincial Lady. As the PL was already well-established in another magazine, my guess is that Joyce Dennys jumped on a bandwagon, but I do think that she has a lighter touch than EM Delafield (Who can feel ever so slightly laboured if you read her at too long a sitting.) However, let's not quibble about their respective merits; if you liked the Provincial Lady, you'll love Henrietta ... and a delicious cast of characters fighting the war from a small town on the Devon coast, all wishing for their chance to give Hitler 'what for.'
Only 70 years ago ... but whatever happened to indomitable, tweedy ladies????
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful reprint, 4 Jul 2009
By Simon Thomas - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Quite simply, Henrietta's War is wonderful, and I never wanted it to stop. It was originally a series of articles in Sketch magazine during the Second World War. In the 1980s Joyce Dennys was doing her Spring Cleaning and came across the articles - and they were published in two collections. Henrietta's War and Henrietta Sees It Through. They take the form of letters from Henrietta to Robert, a childhood friend away at war.

The humour is very similar to other books of the period, like EM Delafield's Provincial Lady books - self-deprecating, and appreciative of the ridiculous even while she is proud of England's bravery. The letters are also accompanied by Dennys' own delightful sketches.

Henrietta represents the middle-class women in England, plucky and determined to carry on as normally as possible. They garden and chat and squabble - resisting the overly-zealous scrap metal collectors, and slowing down the knitting bee so as not to finish too soon, can be slotted into their daily lives. 'There's not much glamour on the home home-front. Ours not the saucy peaked cap of our untrammelled sisters [in the ATS]. Ours rather to see that the curtains are properly drawn, and do our little bit of digging in the garden. Ours to brave the Sewing Party and painstakingly make a many-tailed bandage, and ours to fetch the groceries home in a big basket.' In the background are Henrietta's husband, Dr. Charles; friends and occasional enemies Faith, Mrs. Simpkins and Mrs. Savernack; Henrietta's children Linnet and Bill.

I think this quotation demonstrates the mixture of pluckiness and ability to laugh at oneself, which characterise both Henrietta's War and so much writing of the period:

'I was thinking to-day,' said Lady B dreamily, 'that if all we useless old women lined up on the beach, each of us with a large stone in her hand, we might do a lot of damage.'
'The only time I saw you try to throw a stone, Julia, it went over your shoulder behind you,' said Mrs. Savernack.
'Then I would have to stand with my back towards the Germans,' said Lady B comfortably.

Henrietta's War is quite simply a wonderful, witty, charming, and occasionally very moving book. It deserves to be in the company of Diary of a Provincial Lady and Mrs. Miniver as great chroniclers of the home-front - and I can only hope that Bloomsbury will reprint Henrietta Sees It Through at some point in the future.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful wonderful wonderful, 11 Jul 2009
By Elaine Simpson-long (Colchester, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Henrietta's War is a gem. Very Diary of a Provincial Lady'ish, same dry understated wit, not laugh out loud, but deeply satisfying. Henrietta is a doctor's wife living in a seaside town and the sub-title of this book is "News from the Home Front 1939-1942". It is an epistolary novel, Henrietta is writing to an old childhood friend, Robert who is away fighting and each letter tells an anecdote of the daily lives of those at home coping with the War. It is full of wonderful characters. There is a Lady B, who unlike her equivalent, Lady Box, in Provincial Lady, is kindness itself and loved by everyone. She writes to Hitler every night to tell him what she thinks of him and is a tower of strength, we only learn later in the book that she lost her daughter during the First World War and is a moment that brought tears to my eyes.

Faith, the glamorous member of the community, whose clothes are always spot on and who takes a funny turn when she hears that from now on, clothes can only be obtained by coupons; Mrs Savernack, organising everybody and everything and armed with a pistol to shoot any invaders. As you read you realise that, once again, we have a portrayal of the indomitable women and older men left at home during the war and determined with bravery and stiff upper lip to do their very best. It is simply full of the most wonderful delights and if you need cheering up, read this and enjoy.

"I watched Lady B and Mrs Savernack walk away and reflected that Charles was probably right when he said that it was the old women of Britain who will break Hitler's heart in the end"

I loved loved loved this book.... nothing else to say.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rare Gem of a Novel
Henrietta's War actually started out as columns in Sketch. Dennys was an artist who has many successful collections though once married and a mother in the late 1920's her life... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Simon Savidge "savidgeread...

3.0 out of 5 stars VPL
By VPL I mean 'Very Provincial Lady-ish' - not quite as amusing, but worth a look for the wonderful illustrations. A charming gift for an older relative, perhaps?
Published 2 months ago by herladyship

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