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Women in the War

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What to expect

‘An important contribution to our recent history’ ANDREW MARR

‘Absorbing and important’ JOAN BAKEWELL

‘One of my favourite reads of 2021’ GARETH RUSSELL

Poignant and inspiring, Women in the War tells the first-hand stories of ten of the last surviving female members of Britain's 'Greatest Generation'. 

Whether flying Spitfires to the frontline, aiding code breaking at Bletchley Park, plotting the Battle of the Atlantic or working with Churchill in the Cabinet War Rooms, each of these women made a crucial contribution to the conflict overseas and helped to buttress the home front.

Here they recount their remarkable experiences during the Second World War, recalling how their formative years were shaped by danger and trauma, and how friendship and romance fortified their spirits.

Drawing on the insight that comes with age, they contemplate how the conflict helped women prove their worth, transforming society and sparking the later battles for equal rights. 

With a reporter’s eye for detail, Lucy Fisher artfully weaves together moving contemporary interviews with gripping wartime diaries and letters. This is a vivid oral history that will stay with you long after you've put it down.

Critics Review

  • ‘Riveting… Stories that are not only fascinating in themselves, but contain the sort of detail that would only strike those present at the time.’
    THE TELEGRAPH REVIEW

    ‘In all the hundreds of books written about the Second World War, there is a curious lack of information about the role of women. In these series of intimate interviews with some of the last survivors, Lucy Fisher closes the gap. From pilots to land girls, nurses to radio operators, plotters to Downing Street insiders, she hears from some of the remarkable women who helped win the war that defined modern Britain. An important contribution to our recent history.’ ANDREW MARR

    ‘Unsung, and until now unacknowledged, Lucy Fisher tells the story of stalwart yet unassuming women who contributed in obtrusive ways to Britain’s victory in World War Two. Land girl, wireless operator, secretary in the Cabinet war rooms, plotter in the Wrens, paraphraser at Bletchley Park: these women talk of their important, even dangerous lives, setting the record straight. This is an absorbing and important footnote to the history of World War Two.’ JOAN BAKEWELL

    ‘One of my favourite reads of 2021. Wonderfully written, Women in the War captures the voices of ten extraordinary veterans of the Second World War whose stories take us from Bletchley Park to military aircraft, to busy English hospitals and a Blitz-torn Belfast. Women in the War is by turns uplifting, nerve-wracking, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. It is also a story of finding freedom amid fear. The courage and tenacity of these women left me in awe.’ GARETH RUSSELL

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