What Did You Do In The War, Mummy? (U) (Ulverscroft Large Print Series) - Hardcover

Nicholson, Mavis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708936385 ISBN 13: 9780708936382

Publisher: Ulverscroft, 1996

Synopsis

Oral history at its liveliest, most touching and significant from one of Britain's best-loved TV interviewers. In this collection of interviews, women from different walks of life - some famous, some unknown - talk with frankness and humour to Mavis Nicholson about how they lived and worked, loved and managed during the war years. They include a munitions worker, a Windmill girl, landgirls, ambulance drivers, nurses, Waafs, Wrens, an air-raid warden, a favourite singer and a secret agent. Their stories uncover the vivid details of women's lives between 1939 and 1945, and the post-war adjustments that had to be made when their men returned.

About this title

Review:

Mavis Nicholson was born into an extraordinarily ordinary family in South Wales and grew up in the world of the working classes as they lived through two world wars and changing fortunes both globally and close to home. In this rather lovely autobiography, Nicholson speaks fondly and pragmatically of her nearest and dearest, recalling with all the clarity and simplicity of a child the neighborhood of her youth. She gradually peels away the layers of her memory as she tells the story of the little girl who grew up to be one of Britain's most compassionate and well-respected newswomen.

Fond memories of the terraced home she shared with her parents and grandparents and her younger twin siblings are deliciously intertwined with recollections of a burgeoning spirit of adventure fueled by new best friends, bus rides to Woolworths, and regular trips to the cinema. The psychological insight she interlaces through these tales belies Mavis's tender age as she wends her way through childhood. Martha Jane & Me is a gracious, likable memoir in which Nicholson's unquestioning acceptance of, and fondness for, the characters and events that shaped her young life shines brightly; it is filled with the kind of captivating detail that instantly transports the reader to the very heart of a small town in South Wales, where the going was sometimes tough, but the tough just got on with it. --Susan Harrison, Amazon.co.uk

About the Author:

Mavis Nicholson is a British writer and TV broadcaster known for shows that include Good Afternoon, Mavis Catches Up With . . ., and Mavis on 4. She is a columnist at the Oldie magazine in the UK. Dame Vera Lynn is a British singer and songwriter who became a "Forces' Sweetheart" in honor of her concert tours entertaining troops in World War II. In 2009 she set a record as the oldest living artist to have a number one album on British music charts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ulverscroft
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0708936385
• ISBN 13: 9780708936382
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 608