Interesting and very well narrated

This was interesting and comprehensive. Although factual, it was easy to get involved in the women's lives, and gave a real flavour of what they were like. The narration was excellent.

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Amazing

So very interesting, learned a great deal about the plight of many different women and how they coped with the deprivations of wartime. Thoroughly recommend!

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Brilliant WWII Social History

This is a superb account of mostly UK social history between the late 1930s and late 1940s. Although, as the title explicitly states, the account is written from the perspective of a representative sample of British women, from all 'classes', I would say that this is a 'must read' for anyone seriously interested in WWII Home Front Britain. Brilliantly written too.

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the history

I liked it all as it
moved..to. different experiences all-over thr country and how people coped

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Women who kept the wheels turning..........

What a great and varied number of stories from women during the war - some names you will have heard off, but the majority just everyday folk getting on with their lives, sometimes in heartbreaking circumstances. They worked hard and played hard too, war was an opportunity for some of them to learn skills and take on work they would not have been considered for in peacetime. Many inevitably found it hard to return to their lives as they had been before the war.

One small comment would be that it would have been ok to have had a male actor to voice Churchill! - you wouldnt have broken the spirit of the book!

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3 people found this helpful

I wish this had been my lockdown listen

Firstly, this is beautifully narrated and performed, very easy to listen to.

A sweeping account of British women's lives (across the world) through world war 2 and into the new world left after VE Day, the stories included take in women from all classes and how the war panned out for them, including some famous faces. Women at home, in factories, on the land and in the services are all here.

The book does not romanticise the war and the horror and hardship of that time is not minimised, but it is balanced with the humour, domestic banality, loves and triumphs of the women of Britain.

This is a strangely fortifying listen - the stories of resilience and coping (or not) are very applicable to the events of the past year and have put things in perspective. I wish I had listened during the 1st wave of the pandemic.

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Absolutely Fascinating

This is the second book I have listened to about women's experiences of the war. This is so much better, so many real experiences from diary entries. It is even a little too gruesome in parts! I really enjoyed the insight of the narration and that there was follow up of the stories post war. There is also an interesting analysis of the feminism issue, very revealing and surprising. If I was still teaching this would be a great resource.

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So much I didn’t know!

I really enjoyed this book, it was so very informative and written from so many different perspectives. I agree with previous comments that some of the “voices” could have been played better but that did not detract from my overall enjoyment x

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Let down by poor imitations.

Full of information and generally a good commentary, this recording fails miserably to use suitable voices for quotations from men. What’s provided are ludicrous, if not downright irritating, attempts by the female narrators and it would have far better and less grating to just quote the men in normal, female voices if they couldn’t afford male contributors.

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Interesting book

I liked the way the stories thread through the war and post-war periods.
My nan was in the army in anti-aircraft and she used to tell us about it as a child. After she died, I wish I had listened more carefully!, this book fills in a lot of the gaps and answers a lot of the questions I would ask her now as an adult. It makes you feel like you were there, down to mundane things like the weather and lack of nylons. My Granny was a housewife, I didn't realise what they went through having thought they were not particularly active in the war, how wrong could I have been!

The story teller is good and keeps you interested in a very (perhaps slightly over-long) narrative. The voices of the women are sometimes a tad ridiculous, overdone and fake accents, but this made me smile actually and does not detract at all, hence high rating.

Great late night listening and thoroughly enjoyed.

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