Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster

[shandyleer]

Has anyone read this? I've only just started it but am loving it. If you like books like Nella Last's War and Diary of a Provincial Lady etc, I think you'd enjoy this. The diaries begin in 1914 and carry on for most of her life (not quite sure what year they go up to). It is a novel, but heavily based on some diaries of a lady called Millicent King.

I read this and got really engrossed and thought how amazing that it's all true and then MN set me straight - tis all fiction, that bit at the beginning is also fiction, but all done very convincingly.

Oh is it really? So there was no Millicent King? That's a shame, but now that you come to mention it, I didn't like the tone of that bit at the beginning. I'm still enjoying reading "the diaries" though.

Yes, it's all fictional but I read most of it without realising too.

I enjoyed this book very much and I don't usually like Margaret Forster. The bit where Millicent's sister, brother in law and two of the children are killed in the Blitz is heart rending.

Oh, sorry, you've only just started it shandyleer.

I love all of her books

Good Lives and Hidden Lives also v good.

If anyone is interested, 'Stand We At Last' by Zoe Fairbains is in a similar vein to 'Ordinary Woman' but tells the story of several different women, linked by family or marriage, through the 20th century. I found it fascinating.

I really enjoyed it - I think she writes best about ordinary people

I've finished this now - very disappointing ending I thought , and didn't like niece Connie at all!