Product Description

Some years ago, journalist Nicholas Webley stumbled across a remarkable find during a routine investigation in a small house in Norfolk - a diary kept during the war years and scribbled for the most part in school exercise books and scraps of decomposing paper, written as it turned out by a seamstress born in the 1880's. Betty Armitage was a theatrical dresser during the first part of the century and moved to Norfolk before the war. Her diary is unusual, as it views the events of the war through the eyes of someone born around the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. So many accounts of the war are based on military experience or life in cities during the Blitz; here the great events of those years are viewed from the country: privation relieved by the occasional poached pheasant, upheaval as thousands of bright young US servicemen 'invade' East Anglia, quiet heroes and small-time rural villains. A time which seems familiar to us today through film but which was really another age springs to life in the pages of Betty's diary, funny, touching and unaffectedly vivid.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17182 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 242 pages

Review
"I am finding it fascinating . Betty's day by day struggle through an ordinary small-town war time life makes unique reading. I lived through the era and can vouch for the truth of it all." --David Croft, OBE, co-writer and co-producer of the BBC comedy hit 'Dad's Army'

This England Magazine
"The funny, touching and wry observations of Betty, a woman who readers will surely love to meet."

Synopsis
The diary of Betty Armitage, a theatrical dresser and seamstress who retired to Norfolk just before WWII. It looks at the events of the war - the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, privation and survival and the American forces "invasion" from a country perspective.

Customer Reviews

So disappointed....
I was so disappointed with this book, somehow to me it just doesnt ring true that this was written by a middle aged woman in war time, I would be interested how much of the authors slant was put on the originals diaries, everything is very much glossed over and the fact that in the introduction the author states that most of the original diaries are now unavailable, left me wondering... If you want a thoroughly good read of war time diaries look no further than the three books by Simon Garfield based on the Mass Observation Probject, they are absolutely superb and I think that is what has left me wanting more in this publication, oh well!

Nice introduction to life experiences
Betty's Wartime Diary is a splendid read. However those people who consider themselves 'experts' in the field should stay away from this one. It is, as the editor reminds us he put this together from ' - her sketchy and disintegrating notes'. Naturally then some level of research has been required. What made this for me is the simple authorship and inclusion of many wartime posters. Both my daughters have used this text in their studies demonstrating its use outside the home. Oh and yes I am an 'expert'!!

Sunday night TV reading
I have a great interest in reading about ordinary people in WWII but found this book very disappointing. It is all just too twee and reminded me of Sunday night "cosy" television such as "Heartbeat", even down to the characters in the book being like soap figures - e.g. the not-quite-a-spiv chap. This just does not ring true after reading other accounts and listening to people who lived through it all.