These Wonderful Rumours!
A Young Schoolteacher's Wartime Diaries 1939-1945
Published on 12. September 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-1-84408-811-9 (ISBN)
Description
May Smith is twenty-four at the outbreak of World War Two; at night, the sirens wail, and the young men of the village leave to fight. But still, ordinary life goes on: May goes shopping, plays tennis, takes holidays and even falls in love - while recording it faithfully in her diary.
'May is simply a joy, a bright spark in dark times' The Times
'May is simply a joy, a bright spark in dark times' The Times
Reviews / Votes
I grew to love every single detail. This is what it really must have been like to live through the war in Derbyshire on a teacher's salary with no car. I was fascinated -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Spectator * May Smith is simply a joy, a bright spark in dark times -- Iain Finlayson * The Times * Well written, witty and absorbing, Smith's chronicles give us an insight into the life and impact of the war in a small English village -- Nilima Marshall * Yorkshire Evening Post *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Illustrations
Integrated: 20, int b/w photos
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 123 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
324 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84408-811-9 (9781844088119)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2012
Virago Press Ltd
€3.99
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
11/2012
Virago Press Ltd
€38.59
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
May Smith was born in 1914 in Swadlincote, South Derbyshire. She trained to be a teacher at Goldsmiths College, London. For many years she kept a diary, with a record of her life and her reading. After her first post at an all age elementary school in Swadlincote, in 1937 she moved to Springfield, a new Swadlincote junior school, where she taught during the Second World War. After marriage and children and a break from full-time teaching, she returned to Springfield, where she remained until her retirement in 1975. She died in 2004.