Synopses & Reviews
Smart (history, U. of Plymouth, England) presents an edited version of the Bickersteth Second World War diaries covering the period from the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939 to the spring of 1942. (Volume II covers the remainder of the Second World War.) The letters are written by various members of the close-knit Bickersteth clan, an unusual middleclass English family whose members had also chronicled their experiences of WWI in The Bickersteth Diaries 1914-1918, edited by Bishop John Bickersteth. Together, the letters provide a picture of the English experience of war through intimate exposure to the daily thoughts and struggles of various family members.