Zigzagging

The redoubtable Mrs. Anderson’s Great War Boston socialite Isabel Weld Perkins (later Anderson) inherited $5,000,000 when she was 5 years old in 1881, so began her life of privilege. Nevertheless, when the First World War broke out she volunteered as a canteen worker in America, where she became the leader of Washington’s Red Cross activities and Belgian relief work. She then crossed to Europe to work in the war-zone, operating a Red Cross canteen for a period of time before working as a nurse, at one point in the company of the Queen of Belgium in a hospital operating theatre. Anxious to understand conditions in the trenches she travelled extensively through the front lines, where the redoubtable ladies from the Cellar House of Pervyse make an appearance, before travelling to England and then experiencing war at sea, including narrowly avoiding being sunk by a torpedo from a German U-Boat. This is an intriguing view of the Great War from an American woman’s perspective. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.