Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front, 1939-1942

Small wonder that the weekly installments of these endearing letters purportedly written to a friend at the front were eagerly awaited by the British during World War II. For the vignettes of ""coping'' in Devon are often so hilarious that you are surprised to find yourself wiping away a tear. Henrietta is an engaging character, with a son and a daughter in the services and a doctor husband who gives lectures about the digestive system and snores through air-raid alerts. There's also rotund, indomitable Lady B, ready to plunge into the ocean in pursuit of what looks like a mine; siren-like Faith, growing masses of geraniums to pat on her cheeks in the wartime absence of rouge; Mrs. Savernack, fainting dead away in a first-aid course and nearly killed in the crush of students avid to practice on her. The author's Hokinsonlike illustrations, her gentle wit and her concern for the sensibilities of all around her should guarantee as many delighted readers today as there were 45 years ago. February