I'm falling behind with my reviews:
17 Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
This is the first instalment of Brittain's memoirs about her experiences before, during and the years immediately after WWI. Brittain grew up in a middle class family in the north west where she was destined to do the same thing as the other young women of her class, marry well. Despite little formal education, she battled with her father to study at Oxford, where she won a scholarship. However, WWI broke out and after a year at Oxford, she was desperate to do something (her brother, fiancé and two male friends were on the Western Front) so enrolled as a VAD nurse, serving in London, Malta and France. One by one, her male relatives / friends are killed and by the end of the war, Brittain along with the rest of her generation, have to navigate their way through a world that has undergone a huge societal shift.
I found this such a deeply affecting book. Brittain's writing is so calm and measured, despite the horrific situations she describes. The letters and poems between Vera and her brother / friends serving in the army really resonated with me as they are filled with such depth of the thought and emotion. She really was a remarkable woman who went on to become a committed pacifist and feminist and had a long career in journalism. I also had no idea that her daughter was Shirley Williams.
18 Stay Where You Are Then Leave by John Boyne
I stuck with the WWI theme for another book which I read with DD as she's studying The Great War at school. It's July 1914, Alfie's 5th Birthday and his father promises his family that he won't sign up to fight. The next day, Alfie's secure world crumbles as his father comes home in an army uniform having gone back on his word.
The story moves forward 4 years and much has changed for 9 year old Alfie. His Czechoslovakian neighbours have been interned, his dad's best friend has been imprisoned for being a 'Conchie', his mum works all hours as a nurse, Alfie regularly skips school to earn money shining shoes and his dad hasn't written home for over a year. Despite his mum's assurance that his dad is on a secret mission, Alfie knows she's lying and when a chance encounter gives clues to his dad's whereabouts, Alfie comes up with a plan to find his dad.
This is a YA book and Boyne introduces the concept of war with the death of young soldiers and mental health including shell shock in a sensitive way, acknowledging how frightening it can be to children. His writing is never sentimental and he presents being a soldier and being a conscientious objector as two equally valid moral choices.DD really enjoyed it but what let the book down for me was the sheer implausibility of Alfie's mission and the need to wrap everything up with a happy ending which would have been far from reality.