What Amazon says
My Gentle War is the story of a young girl and her family. Ripped away from the home she loved, from her friends, and familiar surroundings, she spends her formative years in the comparative safety of the Welsh Valleys. With the World at War, and her father sent to the battlefields of Europe, her war is fought holding back tears whilst waiting for news of her father, never knowing whether she will see him again. This is the story of a young girl learning to live a new life, holding her family together in unfamiliar surroundings, all the while dreaming of the father that was forced to leave her. My Gentle War is Joy’s story.
My review
My Gentle War is a delightful memoir about the life on a little girl, aged seven years old when war was declared in 1939, and her family as they navigated the changing landscape of everyday life in war time Britain. Joyce’s family lived a middle class life in Dagenham, London when the war started and her father and his brother, Bernard, signed up with the Royal Air Force to go and fight. Joyce’s parents decide that it will be safer for her mother, two younger brothers and herself to go and live with her family in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. The book describes in great detail the difference between her father’s beautifully cultivated garden filled with gorgeous flowers in Dagenham and the wild and lonely beauty of life in the Welsh mountains. Her father’s sadness at having to ruin his garden by building a bomb shelter in the middle of it is the first insight the reader has of the changes that are going to come.
The second insight comes when the author describes the chaos of Paddington Station when her father leaves to go and fight in France and the rest of the family depart for Wales. It is not that easy for an evacuee to fit into life in a rural village, but Joyce and her brothers are young enough to do so without to many problems and, other than one incident when Joyce has a broken glass bottle thrown at her, they all settle into their new life and school. The hard life in Wales is detailed through the memories of the little girl who sees the poverty and learns about the hardship inflicted by the depression prior to the war, on this mining town. The risks of mining are also described through the chronic lung disease suffered by her uncle and the death of a young cousin in the coal mine. The joys of life for children are also expressed with the town arranging concerts staring the children, a picnic and other forms of entertainment. During the early part of the, the bombs do not reach Wales and the food shortages have not as yet bitten.
Throughout the war, Joyce’s family go between places of refuge, initially Wales, and their London home which they return to when her father is home on leave and intermittently while her mother is doing war work in London.
For the last part of the war, Joyce and her brothers become real evacuees are are sent to live with strangers away from London and the buzz bombs. This particular part of this memoir made me realise how fortunate my own mother was during her days growing up in the war. Her family never had to leave their home town of Bungay and were able to stay on their farm throughout the war.
I really enjoyed this memoir which reads like a conversation and tells of life for Joyce and her mother and siblings in Britain and also tells of some of her father’s experiences of the war in France, including the lead up to the evacuation of Dunkirk, through extracts of his diary and letters home. For people who are interested in World War II and particularly every day life for people during this terrible time, this is a wonderful and eye opening book.
Purchase My Gentle War (Memoir of an Essex Girl)
roberta-writes.com 
Great review, Robbie:) It sounds like an insightful read.
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I really enjoyed it, Denise. I do enjoy reading about people.
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This sounds like a compelling read, Robbie. There is nothing in my life that I can compare to the challenging situation that Joy faced. It would be hard enough for an adult facing such problems, let alone a seven-year-old child.
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Yes, the war was very tough on the children, Pete. Joy’s story is fascinating and she includes extracts from letters from her father which tell a bit about his life in France in the early part of the war. Thanks for reading, Pete.
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Thank you Pete. I grew to love Wales and nature through evacuation. It also made me more independent, and to soften the separation, got me reading and joining the library at seven. Words have been my passion ever since. Best wishes.
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This is a lovely review of Joy’s book, Robbie. ❤
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Thank you, Jane. It is a fascinating read so easy to write a review for.
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I have added it to my reading list, Robbie. Xx
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Thank you, Jane.
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Congratulations to Joy on such a great review. I can’t imagine the hardships families and children went through at such a dark time in history.
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Joy’s experiences were much worse than my mom’s, Mae. My mom was not evacuated and she never lived with strangers like Joy did at the end of the war. A lot of the children who were evacuated were badly treated by the families who took them in and it was very sad.
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A lovely review of what sounds like a marvellous book. I was born in Dover in 1953, so I grew up surrounded by the remnants of destruction and in the midst of a huge regeneration programme. My father was evacuated to South Wales as a boy – he was just coming up to 12 when WW2 started – and had mixed memories of his experience.
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My mother was one when the war started, Clive, and seven when it ended. I wrote a novella with her about her memories as a young child growing up in the war. She remembers the cold and the hunger. Luckily, she was not evacuated as they lived in a rural town. I really enjoyed reading Joy’s memories and extracts from her father’s letters.
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They were hard times. Dover has a proud history going back to Roman times, so we had plenty of opportunity for learning, and the museum was one of my favourite places as a kid. Joy was evacuated to Merthyr Tydfil, which is where my Dad went too.
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Oh, Roberta, What a darling girl you are! Thank you so much. Really appreciated. It’s my only book to go to no,1 in Amazon Kindle’s Social History and memoir category (for a while…) Carry on with all your wonderful endeavours.. Hugs xx .
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HI Joy, I am so glad you are pleased with my review which I posted to Amazon and Goodreads. What a wonderful book. I have given it to my mom to read now.
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Thanks for featuring Joy’s book and for the wonderful review. These books are great for letting the following generations know what the people of war-time Britain had to go through.
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I agree, Darlene, and that is exactly why I wrote While the Bombs Fell. It was aimed at older children for that exact reason.
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What a beautiful and poignant review, Robbie. It made me think of your book as well as my mom who grew up in Asia during the same war. There are so many losses even when there isn’t a loss of life. What a terrible thing to do to our children. Congrats to Joy on the fabulous review, and thanks for your recommendation.
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I am glad you enjoyed this review, Diana. I really enjoyed this book and having delved so deeply into my mom’s story in order to write our book, so much of this seemed so close to my heart.
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Wonderful review Robbie and fabulous Joy.. xx
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Thank you, Sally. A very special and wonderful book.
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Sounds like an interesting read. Great review Robbie. 🙂
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I enjoyed your review of Joy’s book, as well as the comments it prompted.
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Thank you, Liz. A special book with fascinating insights and memories.
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