Cloudless May (1943) by Storm Jameson

Review by Sylvia D For our women writers and World Wars One and Two session I read Storm Jameson’s Cloudless May (Macmillan, 1943 and still in print) which is a political and psychological exploration of the fall of France in the Second World War. The writing reveals a considerable knowledge of French landscape, culture and … Continue reading →

High Wages (1930) by Dorothy Whipple

Review by Sylvia D. High Wages is one of Dorothy Whipple’s early novels. It was first published in 1930 and was republished by Persephone in 2009 and the quotes in my review are taken from this edition. The title comes from an old saying; ‘Experience doth take dreadfully high wages, but she teaches like none … Continue reading →

Tadpole Hall by Helen Ashton (1941)

This is a war novel which focuses on the home front rather than on active service. It is 1939 and the village of Lambscot is facing the threat and then the certainty of war. At the centre of the novel is Colonel Heron, a widower who lost an arm in the First World War and … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Well of Loneliness (1928) by Radclyffe Hall

Review by George Simmers. The Reading Groups have been looking at war books by women this month. The one I selected is better known for other reasons, but the Great War is central to it, and its take on the War is highly distinctive.

The War-Workers* (1918) by E M Delafield (EMD)

  This month we have been reading books about women in war… I was looking things up for this review and found: ‘…those who knew her books…were astonished at her power to detect and expose humbug, self-importance, careerism and conceit.  The woman who by self-imposed martyrdom inflicts constant trouble and annoyance on her family and … Continue reading →