Nella's Last War Edited by Richard Broad and Suzie Fleming

IT IS not surprising that Victoria Wood found the wartime diaries of Nella Last a total joy and turned them into a television play. Nella and Victoria would have got on very well. Nella was one of many who sent accounts of their everyday life to the Mass-

IT IS not surprising that Victoria Wood found the wartime diaries of Nella Last a total joy and turned them into a television play. Nella and Victoria would have got on very well.

Nella was one of many who sent accounts of their everyday life to the Mass-Observation unit from 1939. But her diary is not only a fascinating insight into a different world, seen from a housewife's point of view, it is also beautifully written.

Nella had a great gift for capturing emotion and summing up the frustrations of living with a man she had no empathy with. But she got on with it - that was what people in her world did. Her joy in life came from her son Cliff but, like almost every other family she knew, her days were spent riddled with anxiety that he would be killed in the war.

Nella was always busy. But always Nella recognised, among the mundane details of life, the fragility and wonder of life. She was a glorious person and it is a privilege to have known her.

Thanks to David's Bookshop, Letchworth GC. 5/5