tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773539610706998068.post5837499746539407970..comments2024-03-28T10:33:47.385+11:00Comments on Kate Constable's Blog: We Are At WarA latte beckonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967372772145537800noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773539610706998068.post-72832480688515802852018-05-19T17:23:41.706+10:002018-05-19T17:23:41.706+10:00I missed out on 'Our Hidden Lives' when it...I missed out on 'Our Hidden Lives' when it came up earlier, I was so cross. But I have got 'Nella Last's Peace' in my stash, which I think is part of the same series.<br />The details are so interesting! The close-up details of people's lives are often so much more intriguing than the big picture events. Imagine someone entrusting their children to a strange man these days! You'd probably be arrested for even asking.<br />Unfortunately the more of this stuff I read, the more it spoils me for historical fiction or TV -- 'they wouldn't have done that...!' I saw 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' recently and I thought, they are far too cavalier with the telephone. I guess it's hard for a modern audience to even imagine a time when everyone didn't have phones in their pockets, let along writing letters for everyday communication! A latte beckonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967372772145537800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773539610706998068.post-70680643937914562072018-05-19T02:33:49.298+10:002018-05-19T02:33:49.298+10:00I just tried to comment and everything I wrote dis...I just tried to comment and everything I wrote disappeared so I hope this works! I hadn't realised there was an earlier collection of diaries - I've got Simon Garfield's collection of post-war diaries 'Our Hidden Lives'. It's full of fascinating details about shopping on rations; one writer complains about her neighbours who will only eat warm bread (fresh from the bakers) and throw away the rest when it's gone cold. The casual anti-semitism is still in evidence after the war sadly. (Useful background for Miranda in 'End Of Term' though.) And some anecdotes seem unthinkable today: one of the male diarists, travelling by train, is asked at the station to keep an eye on two children travelling alone, by their mother, to whom he is a complete stranger. The diaries are compulsively readable, much better than most historical fiction.<br />Ann Phillips.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com