Diary of an ordinary woman - Rated 
Millicent was no ordinary woman, quite the opposite in fact. She was intelligent, modern and forward thinking. Margaret Forster weaves an intricate detailed account of life in Britain from a woman's point of view. I could not get enough of this book and read it manically, wanting to know if Millicent got a happy ever after, and was shocked and intrigued by each twist and turn of her life. Most of all I was shocked by the ending, which I will not reveal, but make sure you keep reading right to the VERY end!
diary of an ordinary woman - Rated
An excellent read. It was one of those books you don,t want to end. Fascinating insight into living through some of the major historical events in Britain through the 20th century from the very personal perspective of Millicent the main character. Cleverly written so the voice of the main character changes as she ages. It pulls you in to her life and you can strongly sense what it was like living in that era. Highly recommend as a book of substance which at the same time is an easy read.
misleading and poor - Rated 
Having read this particular edition of the book, I did not have the final acknowledgement about it being a complete work of fiction. The introduction is misleading, and combined with the way the book is structured can lead you to believe it is a near-true account of real diaries. This is not the case. So all the failings in the text, the missing description of significant events and unlikely human reactions, which I trusted and believed to be the idiosyncracies of the diary writer, were in fact just poor writing on the part of the author. I was extremely disappointed, and felt betrayed by the fact that my edition didn't contain the admission, as other editions do. I probably wouldn't read another Margaret Forster if paid to!
A good travel read. - Rated
I read this book while travelling on the trains and was just captured by the attention to detail and by the narrater's talent for recording - yes, this book is a diary and what a witty acount you get. I found it hard not to think about the accounts in the book and how I sympathised with the main protagonist - you'll absolutely love it. A well deserved five stars.
A patent subterfuge - Rated
A curious attempt to fool the reader into believing the author had edited someone else's diary, she gives herself away in her anachronistic use of vocabulary alien to the period to which the diaries relate.
The story purports to be of an ordinary woman but Millicent is more what a person of her generation might have called a rentier, living largely off the good fortune of the investments she inherits.
Our credulity is stretched as the author creates a character whose brother returns injured from the Great War with shellshock. Further siblings are killed in the Second World War in the military and the loss of most of a family in the blitz. The fiance she nearly had is beheaded by the Japanese and her adopted daughter then becomes a Greenham Common peace campaigner.
All these are believable vignettes into the tragedy which was the twentieth century but not as the voice and feelings of one ordinary woman. Only on the last page of the book does the author confess her trick - one I had easily spotted in the first few pages.
| 
