E. J. Rudsdale's Journals of Wartime Colchester - Softcover

Catherine Pearson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752458213 ISBN 13: 9780752458212

Publisher: GARDNERS VI BOOKS AMS006, 2010

Synopsis

Eric Rudsdale's role as a curator and air-raid shelter superintendent at Colchester Castle during the Second World War gave him the perfect opportunity to record life on the home front in his diaries. Eric's writing is characterised throughout his journals by his wry observations of wartime officialdom and his lack of conformity with the prevailing views of the time. He was a pacifist, which gives his journals an unusual perspective. However, even as a civilian he could not escape the conflict, living in a garrison town threatened by invasion and regular bombing raids. His journals, therefore, record anxious and tragic events, but throughout it all his sense of humour is never diminished for long. The diary extracts demonstrate Eric's ability to bring a scene vividly to life and each account highlights the daily pressures that people endured as they valiantly tried to carry on with normal life in spite of the war.

About this title

Review:

CATHERINE PEARSON has a BA in Medieval and Modern History from King's College, London, and an MA in Museum Studies from University College London. She recently completed a PhD at UCL on the history of Britain's museums during the Second World War, which was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She lives in Chelmsford. Now deceased, E.J. Rudsdale was born in 1910 in Colchester. He left the Royal Grammar School in 1928 to become Curator's Assistant at Colchester Castle Museum.

About this edition

• Publisher: GARDNERS VI BOOKS AMS006
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0752458213
• ISBN 13: 9780752458212
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224