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Publisher: Potlatch Publications
Genre: biography & memoir
Format: trade paperback; 113 pages; black & white photographs
Price: $15.00 
Valerie Nielsen skilfully uses personal memories, information gleaned from letters, family reminiscences, and conversations with her older brother to reconstruct the British World War II years as experienced by the wives and mothers of enlisted men who were left to carry on.
The story poignantly recounts a myriad of the details of deprivation and how people coped, details that are often missing from the history books. In addition to the familiar blackout curtains and food rations, children took donations of sugar and butter to a birthday party to help provide for the birthday cake, wild blackberries were picked to augment meals, adults attended Abbot and Costello movies to laugh and forget their troubles for a while. Always there was singing – especially the rousing songs heard on the radio.
This is a story that will appeal to readers of all ages, to British men and women who will recall their own experiences, and to history buffs seeking to discover more personal details about life in wartime England.