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Books Related to Private Battles Simon Garfield - ISBN: 0091910773
Interesting Diarists - Rated
Being a humble diarist myself, I am always fascinated by books of this genre and this is a very good one.
It gives us an insight into the lives of five very different people who kept diaries in the immediate post World War Two era. They were part of the Mass Observation project which was set up to record the lives of ordinary people in Britain. Simon Garfield weaves the five lives together.
The people featured never met, but they all lived through the same times of uncertainty when rationing continued despite the fact the war had ended. The great thing about these diaries is how they weave together discussion on national and international topics with the details of mundane private lives. By approaching the subject matter in date order it is sometimes difficult to remember previous comments made by the diarists. To achieve this I would have to go back again and read the entries from individuals in order rather than inter-twining them as the author does. That is only a small criticism. Garfield had to decide whether to use chronological or personal order and I guess he has chosen the most interesting option so that you don't get bored with a specific character.
I particularly liked Herbert Brush, the London pensioner, who showed a wit rather lacking in some of the others and Herbert wrote diabolical poetry. We get wonderful entries such as "I paid my usual visit to my bank manager for him to certify that I am still alive. I gave him a couple of large tomatoes." Dear old Herbert is completely off the wall at times: "I walked along Charing Cross Road to see whether I could find a book giving prime numbers up to five million or so... but every bookseller said No without any hesitation. Even Foyles could not help me." Later on he advocates a new calendar which begins each month on the same day of the week!
The book brilliantly evokes the times as you are taken into the lives of the five people. I detested the gay antiques dealer B Charles who came out as a self opinionated bore with dangerous views. At one point he says: "I often think that the Germans deserved to win the war. It is a constant source of amazement to me how France has got away with it for so long. A treacherous false nation.... It would be a good thing, in a great many ways, if the whole of France could be swallowed up in an earthquake, along with the entire population! They are no good."
Charles also turns on the Americans and British and seems throughout to be a Nazi sympathiser: "Goering was a very brave man and I am very glad indeed to learn that all the Nazis died very bravely. In 25 years time they will be heroes and martyrs." How wrong could he be!
Elsewhere there is plenty of anti government sentiment with Maggie Blunt from Slough, George Taylor, an accountant from Sheffield and Edie Rutherford, a South African housewife from Sheffield all pitching in.
The book is hugely informative, good fun and very illuminating about a period in our history that has often been ignored. I can thoroughly recommend it.
