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The book is full of well-researched facts and statistics and provides a different insight into what is admittedly an already well-known subject. The British Home Front is such a familiar period of history that it can sometimes seem that there is little left to write about. But by focusing on teenagers, Leatherdale has filled a demographic gap that is not always apparent.

Using Bunty’s and other teenagers’ testimonies, it becomes clear that wartime adolescents were just as consumed by confusing dilemmas as they are today but were further burdened by a heightened sense of danger. Despite the other testimonies, Bunty remains centre stage throughout the book, and her diary entries are a unique insight into one young woman’s war.

Bunty claims in the foreword, “When I read it now I can’t help but think how foolish I sounded.” Nevertheless, Bunty’s self-deprecation does her entries a disservice. Walter Scott once wrote that a diary is “dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who
treasures it.” Duncan Leatherdale himself rightly became “engrossed” by his grandmother’s words and has expanded on her story in an engaging style to produce a book that is fittingly accessible to a teenage audience.

History of War, issue 52 - by Tom Garner

Written in a relaxed style which makes it difficult to put down, and is suitable as a work of reference as well as to satisfy general interest.

WDYTYA? February 2018 – reviewed by Paul Conner, France (reader review)

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