I’ve been looking forward to Persephone Reading Week for a while, especially having recently heard a friend describe, in great animation, a talk that Nicola Beauman gave at Newnham College. Her description of the talk gave a new bite to Persephone Reading Week. I blithely started Few Eggs and No Oranges: The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45 before I realized that I had been oblivious to the details, and it was in fact Persephone Reading Weekend. A 600 page book was perhaps not the most sensible choice, then.
On first starting the book, I remarked to a friend that it seemed all the author ever did was wander about various bombed out streets inspecting the damage. But I’m glad I stuck with it, because I ended by finding the diaries absorbing, and Hodgson’s attempts to keep track of the changing face of London to be extremely moving.
Vere Hodgson wrote the diaries to send to her cousin Lucy, who spent the war in British Rhodesia. I was initially surprised by her reporting, almost clinical tone, expecting something more personal. It felt a bit like reading bulletins. To flesh it out a bit, I tried to match Hodgson’s entries with news events of the day, so I could see to what she was referring. I used Google Maps to see her route to and from the Sanctuary, especially considering how often she had to make that journey during the middle of the night, and sometimes at a run; and I was delighted to discover that the police station that was opposite her little flat is still there. I heard Princess Elizabeth’s first radio address to the nation (“such a sweet voice”) and listened to Churchill’s ‘blood, toil, tears, and sweat‘ speech along with her. But as the war went on and Hodgson’s voice became more assured, I felt drawn into the sweep of her days and no longer needed to look outside her diaries.
I so wish I had known of these diaries when studying the war in school and college. These, and other diaries collected, should be required reading alongside textbooks. While they do present only one version of the home front, and one of fairly comfortable circumstances at that, what they show is the daily challenges and delights, something textbooks can’t do. It never occurred to me how difficult it must have been to sit exams at the time, in unheated and dimly lit rooms, constantly wondering if there would be an air raid interruption. Or, in addition to the dwindling clothing/fabric/wool, how hard it must have been to try to replace crockery, rain boots, and other daily essentials. And they point out how aware people were of failures: of the efforts at the front and battles lost, of what was actually happening in concentration camps, and of the failures of the government and safety efforts. Hodgson quietly reports shelters that were hit throughout her diaries, but she’s not able to conceal her emotion when recounting the bombing of a school, almost as if she’s trying to write her way to some kind of understanding of the horror:
Wednesday, we had a daylight raid. Loud round here, but we did not realize the devils had done such awful damage until later in the day, when rumours trickled through that a school had been hit, with great loss of life. A bad business. Six raiders snooped into London. Not realized where they were making for, so no alarm given. Thus the School had no chance to get the children to the Shelters. Seems to have been at Grove Park, where 150 little girls were assembled for lunch – and the centre of the building caved in. Other bombs outside killing people. A dreadful scene. Every kind of help raced to the spot – great cranes to lift masonry. They say 40 little girls were killed outright, and six of the staff. All to be buried together on Monday. Rescuers worked all through the night, though Warning went – frantic parents joined in the search. The school was a tall building, and the bomb went straight through. For those who died they never knew what struck them…It is difficult to see the reason for these things.
The diaries are remarkable for the fact that Hodgson, while clearly aware about the very real danger she faced every day, managed to create a full and interesting life for herself in wartime, and one brimming with adventure and friendship. She was constantly on the go, volunteering for first-aid courses or anything where she could help out. She took in friends, befriended pets, helped out family members, braved nighttime raids to go to the theatre, read the latest books, stood in line for rapidly diminishing rations, and generally faced the constantly shifting landscape of her life with extraordinary cheerfulness. She found happiness in cups of tea after a cold walk, a Pepys reading on the radio, and the occasional treat of a longed-for food gift. From June of 1944, after years of rationing…
Lucy’s butter is excellent. We are almost afraid to eat it. Auntie Nell puts hers out on a special plate. She urged me on – but we both gaze at it with awe, and dig in our knives gingerly in case it turns out to be a mirage on the table.
I felt especially lucky this weekend as I read, enjoying my fresh orange juice and buttery toast. Not just for my safety and unrationed food/books, but that there were people like Vere Hodgson who made it possible for me to get a glimpse of a remarkable time.
Reading your post about ‘Few eggs and no oranges’ I wish I’d started reading this directly after ‘Good evening Mrs. Craven’. Although Mollie Panter-Downes writes in a very journalist style, diary entries provide a very different insight. Being German and born over 30 years after the end of the war our school lessons provided information on totally different aspects of the war and focussed mostly on the Holocaust, concentration camps and antisemitsm. Reading about WWII from an English persepective now is extremly interesting and I think following Vere Hodgon’s steps and eperiences via the internet and other sources is a great idea!
I’ll be on it right after I finish reading Barbara Pym…
Oh Kate! Wasn’t this wonderful! That Vere would even take the time to write about the events of the day with everything that was going on around her was amazing to me.
I have always been the sort of person who is thankful for the little things but this diary made me even more aware of just how lucky we are. Despite it’s length I was sorry when I turned the last page.
Great review!
Darlene had me sold when she posted about this before but now I really am desperate to read this. What a compelling and eye opening document of life in wartime it sounds. Certainly a contrast to my Persephone weekend read, which presented quite a different view of wartime London!
The more I learn about the World Wars the more grateful I am that I have not lived through one and have not had to experience the kind of privations and terror described by those who had to live through those years of constant worry. I can’t even begin to imagine the relief they must have felt when it was all over.
Thank you for a brilliant review and I’m so glad you got so much from it.
Kate – what a brilliant review. I love the idea of a multimedia read with googlemaps etc, but your description really sold it to me.
And yes – kids should read this kind of thing as well as the history stuff, the war poets and Anne Frank. A proper understanding of what it was like, and that the people then were as real and human as we are now is soooo important. Rant over.
Thank you for this review Kate! I am brand new to Persephone books and “Few Eggs and No Oranges” arrived yesterday, I started it last night. Like the other Rose above I am impressed by your reference to following Vere’s daily journeys on Google, I look forward to doing the same.
Maybe I should give this another go. I gave up because, like you say, all she seemed to do was walk the streets inspecting the bomb damage (and even though I know the area, I got a bit bored). Now I’m wondering if I gave it a fair chance.
M – It really took that first full year before her writing stopped feeling so stilted, and she found something else to do beyond look at bombed houses. I’m glad I stuck with it – she saw things I’m not sure I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere.
I know my comment is a little late in the day (I hadn’t seen this post until now) but thought I might just say I adored reading Few Eggs and No Oranges although I do understand some of the criticism levelled at it. As Kate says Hodgson’s voice becomes so much more assured as you go further into her diaries – so if you have put it to oneside, don’t hesitate to pick it up again and have another go. I think you’ll be rewarded for your perseverance. I followed this book with another Persephone treasure “On the Other Side: Letters to my Children from Germany 1940-46” by Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg. Being able to read about experiences from “both sides” of the story was incredibly moving.
Abigail – I’ve got “On the Other Side…” on my to-read list. I know so little of the wartime experiences of the women on the other side, and I’m looking forward to reading more about their side of the story.
I’ve not read this, but I’d like to. Hodgson seems a woman of resources. Your extract makes me think of Nella Last.
Nicola – I’ve had Nella Last’s diary on my shelf for ages. You’ve just reminded me that I need to pull it down and read it!
Missingneedle might like Mollie Panter-Downes non-fictional offerings. She wrote Letter from London for the New Yorker and these short letters were compiled into a book which was published in 1940 and chronicle that first year of war. These might perhaps provide a good book to read alongside Vere Hodgson’s Diary.
Another excellent book is Susan Goodman’s Children of War (published by John Murray, 2005) reminiscences of those who were young during WW2.
Wonderful review and very inspiring!
This was one of my very first Persephone reads and, initially, I was sllightly put off by its size and wondered how my interest could be held. Well of course it was and your review, beautifully expressed, reflects my feelings exactly. I really think we have no idea how hard and boring and dreary lilfe must have been then and yet the humour and courage shine through. Nella’s War is another inspiring book. I see Margaret has recommended Mollie Panter-Downs short stories. May I also recommend One Fine Day by this author? Beautiful and elegiac
[…] Make Do and Read by Kate – “Few Eggs and No Oranges“ […]
Words on the page against destruction in the streets: that’s where literature starts.
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