Product Description

The period 1943-45 saw some of the most important events of the Second World War, and few were fully aware of the decisions that were to affect the outcome of a global conflict. Yet, a young wartime secretary, Olive Christopher, spent this remarkable time working in Churchill's famous Cabinet War Rooms, where she was one of a tiny inner circle of people party to the political secrets of the crucial final years of the Second World War. Working for long hours in an underground bunker opposite St James' Park, Olive wrote a series of letters to her fiance, a major in the armed forces and posted abroad. Filled with incredible details about the glamorous lifestyle and travel Olive enjoyed because of the seriousness of her job, these letters form an astonishing record of how an ordinary girl could become privy to the most secret aspects of the Second World War. Published for the first time, this illuminating and poignant correspondence offers a rare insight into the workings of the Cabinet War Rooms towards the end of the Second World War, and documents the rich wartime experiences of a woman with exclusive access to the closed world of Churchill's inner circle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #469916 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
The Telegraph, 19.02.07: "one of the most atmospheric eyewitness accounts of that time". --The Telegraph, 19.02.07:Elizabeth Grice

"remarkable memoirs". --Motoring and Leisure, February 2007(Joey Clarke).

"a ringside seat as history was made" "It's overwhelming to see all my memories in a book". --The News (Portsmouth), 16.01.07, (Simon Toft); Olive Margerison)

The News (Portsmouth), January 16, 2007
"Olive had a ringside seat as history was made"

Motoring and Leisure, February ,2007
"remarkable memoirs working for Winston"

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and remarkable book
The war years 1943-1945 are uniquely portrayed through the eyes of a young civilian secretary in the Cabinet War Rooms.It is also a love story. It is a fascinating and remarkable book.
Joanna Moody pulls the story together in Part I,the years from Olive Christopher's birth in 1915 to 1943. The letters between Olive and her fiance, Neil Margerison, form much of Part II. They are apart for most of the two years following their engagement.The letters reveal their developing love and dependence.
In her infectious and excited letters, mostly to Neil, we learn about some of the most important event of those war years. And more human insights:Olive's amazement with her travels to exotic countries; the joy of being able to buy nylons and underwear in New York; the pride in Churchill's rapturous welcome everywhere, and the thrill of the British victory parade in Berlin in July 1945. The account of the parade is counterbalanced by a sobering description of devastation and starvation among Berliners.
This is an extraordinary collection of Olive Christopher's observation and participation in these important years and has the added bonus of quirky and human detail not recorded elsewhere.

Churchill & others
This is a gripping story - the life and love of a secretary from Churchill's inner circle told in letters. The tension mounts, and they are superbly set against the backdrop of the momentous events of the turbulent years in the Cabinet War Rooms. A compulsive read.

Ordinary Person - Extraordinary Job
I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating account of an ordinary young woman working in an extraordinary job. There's so much social (and, in the background, world) history recorded in the letters between Olive and Neil - the remarkable thing is that the letters were simply the regular correspondence between 2 people who happened to be involved in, and separated by, the Second World War. Olive's delight in the travel, clothes and social events afforded by her job is the delight of a typical young woman, yet her cheerful, chatty accounts to Neil and others reveal that she is clearly aware of the significance of the events in which she is involved (but unable to document at the time.) A very human story and highly recommended.