Count your blessings, 26 Oct 2008
I write this in late 2008 as the global financial system goes into meltdown and the credit crunch is really biting into our individual pockets. What Nella Last would make of our sickeningly materialistic, wasteful, 'spend spend spend' times I cannot imagine!
On a domestic level we could all learn a lot from Nella's money-saving, waste-avoiding methods. Her descriptions of the meals she contrives are fascinating, and her make-do-and-mend philosophy would put us all to shame.
Aside from the domestic detail, Nella writes movingly about her thoughts and feelings as a wife and mother living through a second war, and especially about the changing role of women and her own sense of liberation through war work.
This should be be required reading for everyone lucky enough to have grown up in times of peace and plenty.

Just read it!, 26 Feb 2008
I can only add to the unalloyed praise of others and wish that Nella Last could know what pleasure and enlightenment her "scribbling" would bring to others over 60 years later.

She writes beautifully and naturally, but what's most interesting is the way she changes as the war progresses. At the beginning she is sickly and weak, plagued with arthritis, and refers to a "breakdown" she had a few years before. But she determines to "do something" for the war effort and joins the WVS. From there she goes from strength to strength, and the evolution of her ideas is fascinating; she comes to see her conventional marriage to an old stick of a husband as "slavery". She's also very observant and perceptive of the people around her.
She writes lyrically of walks home by moonlight, and trips out to the countryside at Coniston Water, but also of the stresses of the blitz, the challenges of getting palatable meals on the table every day, and everyday squabbles and power games at the WVS. She has a truly open mind, always questioning and wondering what the future holds for her sons and the other young people she knows.

I don't want to say too much about it; just read it. It's one of those books where you long to meet the author; she really does seem like someone you know and admire.

Quite Incredible - read it, 20 Feb 2008
A fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. Nella could never have imagined that her diaries would have such meaning so many years after she wrote them. The detail is interesting in it's own right and well written. I love the ins and outs of Nella's life and difficulties. I am interested in the people she writes about. I worry for her sons with her. But beyond that, she has made me look at myself. I have started to look at the way I cook, wastage, how to make things last and go further. The book has made me consider some of my own personal relationships and opened my eyes to the way a mother feels and thinks about her son. It has had me thinking about my grandmother and how she would have gone through the same thing. I hope Nella can look down and know how wonderful this book is.

An Ordinary Woman living through an Extraordinary time. , 09 Feb 2008
This is a book that I really enjoyed. Nella Last is an ordinary housewife aged 49 in the second world war, and it is the story of her everyday life, and how the war affected it, and how she coped. I have total admiration for the people who lived through world wars, in whatever capacity, whether military or civilian. I think that we really don't appreciate their efforts enough, and speaking for myself, I really don't know very much about what it was like in war-time, other than what I have read or seen on tv. I empathised with her so much when her boys went to do their military service, and she tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' while quietly breaking her heart. I loved the fact that she didn't just allow herself to be dominated by her husband, that she found her niche in the shop and the canteen, and she never lost sight of what she thought was important. These people went through so much, yet never lost their sense of humour, or their ability to make the best of a very bad situation. It is a great read, and a marvellous insight into the British personality, I feel. I wonder how Nella Last would feel, knowing that her 'scribblings' as she called them, were being read avidly 60 years after the war, and appreciated and enjoyed by people whose lives would be so altered had the outcome of that war been different.

Utterly engrossing, 18 Sep 2007
Like many other reviewers here, I bought this book having enjoyed the TV dramatisation so much. I was not disappointed! There is a great deal to enjoy as the diaries give so much detail about many different aspects of life during the Second World War. Nella's growing awareness of her own abilities and her increased self-confidence as she has to tackle new challenges are an indication of the changes in women's lives that would eventually surface during the following decades. She speaks to us so directly through these diaries, that you feel totally involved in her experiences. She also displays humour and perception, and I was sorry to come to the end of the book.

Count your blessings, 26 Oct 2008
I write this in late 2008 as the global financial system goes into meltdown and the credit crunch is really biting into our individual pockets. What Nella Last would make of our sickeningly materialistic, wasteful, 'spend spend spend' times I cannot imagine!
On a domestic level we could all learn a lot from Nella's money-saving, waste-avoiding methods. Her descriptions of the meals she contrives are fascinating, and her make-do-and-mend philosophy would put us all to shame.
Aside from the domestic detail, Nella writes movingly about her thoughts and feelings as a wife and mother living through a second war, and especially about the changing role of women and her own sense of liberation through war work.
This should be be required reading for everyone lucky enough to have grown up in times of peace and plenty.

Just read it!, 26 Feb 2008
I can only add to the unalloyed praise of others and wish that Nella Last could know what pleasure and enlightenment her "scribbling" would bring to others over 60 years later.

She writes beautifully and naturally, but what's most interesting is the way she changes as the war progresses. At the beginning she is sickly and weak, plagued with arthritis, and refers to a "breakdown" she had a few years before. But she determines to "do something" for the war effort and joins the WVS. From there she goes from strength to strength, and the evolution of her ideas is fascinating; she comes to see her conventional marriage to an old stick of a husband as "slavery". She's also very observant and perceptive of the people around her.
She writes lyrically of walks home by moonlight, and trips out to the countryside at Coniston Water, but also of the stresses of the blitz, the challenges of getting palatable meals on the table every day, and everyday squabbles and power games at the WVS. She has a truly open mind, always questioning and wondering what the future holds for her sons and the other young people she knows.

I don't want to say too much about it; just read it. It's one of those books where you long to meet the author; she really does seem like someone you know and admire.

Quite Incredible - read it, 20 Feb 2008
A fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. Nella could never have imagined that her diaries would have such meaning so many years after she wrote them. The detail is interesting in it's own right and well written. I love the ins and outs of Nella's life and difficulties. I am interested in the people she writes about. I worry for her sons with her. But beyond that, she has made me look at myself. I have started to look at the way I cook, wastage, how to make things last and go further. The book has made me consider some of my own personal relationships and opened my eyes to the way a mother feels and thinks about her son. It has had me thinking about my grandmother and how she would have gone through the same thing. I hope Nella can look down and know how wonderful this book is.

An Ordinary Woman living through an Extraordinary time. , 09 Feb 2008
This is a book that I really enjoyed. Nella Last is an ordinary housewife aged 49 in the second world war, and it is the story of her everyday life, and how the war affected it, and how she coped. I have total admiration for the people who lived through world wars, in whatever capacity, whether military or civilian. I think that we really don't appreciate their efforts enough, and speaking for myself, I really don't know very much about what it was like in war-time, other than what I have read or seen on tv. I empathised with her so much when her boys went to do their military service, and she tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' while quietly breaking her heart. I loved the fact that she didn't just allow herself to be dominated by her husband, that she found her niche in the shop and the canteen, and she never lost sight of what she thought was important. These people went through so much, yet never lost their sense of humour, or their ability to make the best of a very bad situation. It is a great read, and a marvellous insight into the British personality, I feel. I wonder how Nella Last would feel, knowing that her 'scribblings' as she called them, were being read avidly 60 years after the war, and appreciated and enjoyed by people whose lives would be so altered had the outcome of that war been different.

Utterly engrossing, 18 Sep 2007
Like many other reviewers here, I bought this book having enjoyed the TV dramatisation so much. I was not disappointed! There is a great deal to enjoy as the diaries give so much detail about many different aspects of life during the Second World War. Nella's growing awareness of her own abilities and her increased self-confidence as she has to tackle new challenges are an indication of the changes in women's lives that would eventually surface during the following decades. She speaks to us so directly through these diaries, that you feel totally involved in her experiences. She also displays humour and perception, and I was sorry to come to the end of the book.

The other side of war, 14 Nov 2008
A "Woman in Berlin" is the frank and honest diary of a young woman caught up in the dark days during the fall of Berlin in 1945. The book contains an excellent forward from Antony Beevor the historian who wrote the equally compelling "Berlin the Downfall".
This extraordinary work has an interesting history. It was first published in 1953 to a German public that was not quite ready to face such brutal truths. It quickly disappeared from view and after many decades slowly re-emerged. It is now an international phenomenon and has recently been made into a film which will only enhance its reputation further.
The diary is well written as you would expect from someone who has travelled Europe in the publishing trade. The diary does not tell us exactly what she did. That she is extremely intelligent and articulate there is no doubt. She reads such literary greats as Goethe and has travelled Europe.
Those who might seek titillation in such a book will probably be dissappointed. I hope so. The rapes that she endured so stoically are not sensationalised in any way. She accepted that she could not alter the situation and did her best to live through it. There is no doubt that Stalins Red Army raped on a huge scale in the early days. These were men who were out to revenge horrific atrocities against there own population. They were men who had often been on the front for years. No home leave for most of them. They were mainly simple workers with a smattering of intelligentsia. They felt it was their right to treat German women as war booty and they did so with impunity.
We follow the diary through the brutal early days and find this well read woman sleeping with a simple Russian peasant. One of the incongruity's that war throws up. She is not beneath sleeping with Russians for food to survive. A fact that would have upset many Germans. Many of the German men at that time were helpless to prevent assaults on their womenfolk and felt emasculated. The matter was best swept under the carpet. The matter was not talked about. Even today there are those that refuse to believe these events ever took place. My own Mother who lived through that era is among them. She believes the diary to be a lie and believes the Red Army would never have behaved in such a way. Having read this account and many others I have long been convinced that these events occurred. I would no more deny this than deny that the world was round. The bulk of evidence is convincing. But what convinced me most was her many descriptions of the more mundane tasks like collecting nettles.
I will not give five stars purely on the basis that I am not sure I like the diarist as a person. I sometimes find her comments grate. That is her character and another good case for authenticity. I disliked her comments about the elderly. She describes old age as something to be pitied, not venerated in those desperate times. Often true that the elderly and the very young are the first to suffer at such times. But surely if we behave in such a way then we are no better than the beasts. She quotes the Lapps and Indians as leaving the old to perish when they have gone past usefulness. However it is a fact that many ancient cultures venerate the elderly. As we should.
Aside from these small reservations I find this a compelling work that is deserving of its growing reputation. It is the grittier adult version of Anne Franks diary. It is as the hype says a chilling indictment of war. An important and serious work in the can'on of war literature. Read it.


A remarkable, even poetic account of a vicious time, 02 Nov 2008
In the middle of chaos, amidst the wreckage of the broken city, the anonymous author marvels at the innocence of a baby girl with copper ringlets of hair. Against the dirt, grime, hunger and rape that have become normal life for Berliners, this chubby, pink baby seems a strange reminder of what normality was before the city was occupied.

In a similar vein this diary is a thing of strange beauty, a product of, but completely alien to, the senseless cruelties and world turned upside down Berlin the writer inhabits in those strangest of last days and new beginnings.

This is the story of a few weeks, a little more than two months meticulously detailed in a thoughtful, almost detached. It is no surprise that the author had a background in journalism and editing, nor that she had travelled and had little of the xenophobic closed mindset of Nazi Germany. But she still feels. She is humiliated, degraded and afraid, albeit capable of recognising, cataloguing and exploring these emotions and setting them down on paper.

The writer is a middle class woman, educated and travelled. She has lived through the Second World War and is now battling on the front line as it sweeps into and takes over Berlin. She is reduced to living with a neighbour, using her body to augment the larder and employing a smattering of Russian she picked up on travels in Russia to intervene on behalf of neighbours and to gain protection of Russian officers.

The writer endures and experiences the worse excesses of the occupation. She makes faultless observations about the way life unfolds under encroaching Russian occupation. Her descriptive talent paints vivid portraits of the neighbours, the Germans who share the basement `cave' in a clannish, pre-occupation retreat to before civilisation. She also applies her even handed language to the Russians, marvelling at the variety in personalities, types and manners. By some she is treated almost as an equal, or as a lady. Others smash her to the floor as the spoils of war.

As much as the account horrifies as the accounts of rape become an almost flippant daily discussion between the women, there are also touching moments of kindness and humanity, between neighbours and between the occupiers and occupied. But these are small flickers of light in the thick darkness of the Götterdamerung. There is violence, cruelty and vicious retribution for what Germans did in the Soviet Union.

It is a remarkable record, a flawless account of the most extraordinary of times and a testament to how people react in the most pressured of situations, the instinct for survival taking over. Without bitterness, recrimination or analysing the event long after it happened, this is raw, urgent yet erudite and poetic.

This is an historical record that well deserves the wider audience it will receive following the release of the cinematic adaptation.

A fascinating piece of history, 19 Feb 2008
We are very fortunate that this anonymous woman kept a diary of the terrible events that happened to her and many other German women living in berlin at the end of WWII,because otherwise this is a part of history that would forever remain hushed up.
The author writed with total honesty and clarity,without any self pity and even with a touch of black humour.This is a really fascinating diary written using the authors journalistic talent.It's a shame she never received the credit she deserved for this important piece of history within her lifetime.

An essential book about Berlin in 1945, 05 Feb 2008
Other than fully endorsing what other reviewers have said about the power of this extraordinary account of the ending of the war in Berlin, from April 1945 and the next two or three months, I would simply draw attention to the immediacy of the writing.

It makes highly uncomfortable reading to be taken right into the dusty, half-lit, and stinking basements, where the writer and other people sheltered during the final days, or to travel with her as she makes her way on her bicycle through the rubble of the city, and, yes, to hear of how she copes (and she does cope) with the ordeal of repeated rape. But you finish the book with the strongest possible sense of her dignity, humanity, intelligence and sheer determination to survive. This is essential reading.

A shocking reminder..., 10 Nov 2007
I read this book keeping in mind not only the described facts by the (anonymous) author, but the terrible circumstances it was written under... in my opinion it is a very valuable document that tells us about the terrible (and wonderful) things we all are capable of under war conditions, perhaps useful to wake up and keep in mind the effects our actions have on other human beigns... in my opinion, a series of facts that must not be forgotten, ever. An excellent reading, no doubt, light and deep at the time...

Count your blessings, 26 Oct 2008
I write this in late 2008 as the global financial system goes into meltdown and the credit crunch is really biting into our individual pockets. What Nella Last would make of our sickeningly materialistic, wasteful, 'spend spend spend' times I cannot imagine!
On a domestic level we could all learn a lot from Nella's money-saving, waste-avoiding methods. Her descriptions of the meals she contrives are fascinating, and her make-do-and-mend philosophy would put us all to shame.
Aside from the domestic detail, Nella writes movingly about her thoughts and feelings as a wife and mother living through a second war, and especially about the changing role of women and her own sense of liberation through war work.
This should be be required reading for everyone lucky enough to have grown up in times of peace and plenty.

Just read it!, 26 Feb 2008
I can only add to the unalloyed praise of others and wish that Nella Last could know what pleasure and enlightenment her "scribbling" would bring to others over 60 years later.

She writes beautifully and naturally, but what's most interesting is the way she changes as the war progresses. At the beginning she is sickly and weak, plagued with arthritis, and refers to a "breakdown" she had a few years before. But she determines to "do something" for the war effort and joins the WVS. From there she goes from strength to strength, and the evolution of her ideas is fascinating; she comes to see her conventional marriage to an old stick of a husband as "slavery". She's also very observant and perceptive of the people around her.
She writes lyrically of walks home by moonlight, and trips out to the countryside at Coniston Water, but also of the stresses of the blitz, the challenges of getting palatable meals on the table every day, and everyday squabbles and power games at the WVS. She has a truly open mind, always questioning and wondering what the future holds for her sons and the other young people she knows.

I don't want to say too much about it; just read it. It's one of those books where you long to meet the author; she really does seem like someone you know and admire.

Quite Incredible - read it, 20 Feb 2008
A fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. Nella could never have imagined that her diaries would have such meaning so many years after she wrote them. The detail is interesting in it's own right and well written. I love the ins and outs of Nella's life and difficulties. I am interested in the people she writes about. I worry for her sons with her. But beyond that, she has made me look at myself. I have started to look at the way I cook, wastage, how to make things last and go further. The book has made me consider some of my own personal relationships and opened my eyes to the way a mother feels and thinks about her son. It has had me thinking about my grandmother and how she would have gone through the same thing. I hope Nella can look down and know how wonderful this book is.

An Ordinary Woman living through an Extraordinary time. , 09 Feb 2008
This is a book that I really enjoyed. Nella Last is an ordinary housewife aged 49 in the second world war, and it is the story of her everyday life, and how the war affected it, and how she coped. I have total admiration for the people who lived through world wars, in whatever capacity, whether military or civilian. I think that we really don't appreciate their efforts enough, and speaking for myself, I really don't know very much about what it was like in war-time, other than what I have read or seen on tv. I empathised with her so much when her boys went to do their military service, and she tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' while quietly breaking her heart. I loved the fact that she didn't just allow herself to be dominated by her husband, that she found her niche in the shop and the canteen, and she never lost sight of what she thought was important. These people went through so much, yet never lost their sense of humour, or their ability to make the best of a very bad situation. It is a great read, and a marvellous insight into the British personality, I feel. I wonder how Nella Last would feel, knowing that her 'scribblings' as she called them, were being read avidly 60 years after the war, and appreciated and enjoyed by people whose lives would be so altered had the outcome of that war been different.

Utterly engrossing, 18 Sep 2007
Like many other reviewers here, I bought this book having enjoyed the TV dramatisation so much. I was not disappointed! There is a great deal to enjoy as the diaries give so much detail about many different aspects of life during the Second World War. Nella's growing awareness of her own abilities and her increased self-confidence as she has to tackle new challenges are an indication of the changes in women's lives that would eventually surface during the following decades. She speaks to us so directly through these diaries, that you feel totally involved in her experiences. She also displays humour and perception, and I was sorry to come to the end of the book.

The other side of war, 14 Nov 2008
A "Woman in Berlin" is the frank and honest diary of a young woman caught up in the dark days during the fall of Berlin in 1945. The book contains an excellent forward from Antony Beevor the historian who wrote the equally compelling "Berlin the Downfall".
This extraordinary work has an interesting history. It was first published in 1953 to a German public that was not quite ready to face such brutal truths. It quickly disappeared from view and after many decades slowly re-emerged. It is now an international phenomenon and has recently been made into a film which will only enhance its reputation further.
The diary is well written as you would expect from someone who has travelled Europe in the publishing trade. The diary does not tell us exactly what she did. That she is extremely intelligent and articulate there is no doubt. She reads such literary greats as Goethe and has travelled Europe.
Those who might seek titillation in such a book will probably be dissappointed. I hope so. The rapes that she endured so stoically are not sensationalised in any way. She accepted that she could not alter the situation and did her best to live through it. There is no doubt that Stalins Red Army raped on a huge scale in the early days. These were men who were out to revenge horrific atrocities against there own population. They were men who had often been on the front for years. No home leave for most of them. They were mainly simple workers with a smattering of intelligentsia. They felt it was their right to treat German women as war booty and they did so with impunity.
We follow the diary through the brutal early days and find this well read woman sleeping with a simple Russian peasant. One of the incongruity's that war throws up. She is not beneath sleeping with Russians for food to survive. A fact that would have upset many Germans. Many of the German men at that time were helpless to prevent assaults on their womenfolk and felt emasculated. The matter was best swept under the carpet. The matter was not talked about. Even today there are those that refuse to believe these events ever took place. My own Mother who lived through that era is among them. She believes the diary to be a lie and believes the Red Army would never have behaved in such a way. Having read this account and many others I have long been convinced that these events occurred. I would no more deny this than deny that the world was round. The bulk of evidence is convincing. But what convinced me most was her many descriptions of the more mundane tasks like collecting nettles.
I will not give five stars purely on the basis that I am not sure I like the diarist as a person. I sometimes find her comments grate. That is her character and another good case for authenticity. I disliked her comments about the elderly. She describes old age as something to be pitied, not venerated in those desperate times. Often true that the elderly and the very young are the first to suffer at such times. But surely if we behave in such a way then we are no better than the beasts. She quotes the Lapps and Indians as leaving the old to perish when they have gone past usefulness. However it is a fact that many ancient cultures venerate the elderly. As we should.
Aside from these small reservations I find this a compelling work that is deserving of its growing reputation. It is the grittier adult version of Anne Franks diary. It is as the hype says a chilling indictment of war. An important and serious work in the can'on of war literature. Read it.


A remarkable, even poetic account of a vicious time, 02 Nov 2008
In the middle of chaos, amidst the wreckage of the broken city, the anonymous author marvels at the innocence of a baby girl with copper ringlets of hair. Against the dirt, grime, hunger and rape that have become normal life for Berliners, this chubby, pink baby seems a strange reminder of what normality was before the city was occupied.

In a similar vein this diary is a thing of strange beauty, a product of, but completely alien to, the senseless cruelties and world turned upside down Berlin the writer inhabits in those strangest of last days and new beginnings.

This is the story of a few weeks, a little more than two months meticulously detailed in a thoughtful, almost detached. It is no surprise that the author had a background in journalism and editing, nor that she had travelled and had little of the xenophobic closed mindset of Nazi Germany. But she still feels. She is humiliated, degraded and afraid, albeit capable of recognising, cataloguing and exploring these emotions and setting them down on paper.

The writer is a middle class woman, educated and travelled. She has lived through the Second World War and is now battling on the front line as it sweeps into and takes over Berlin. She is reduced to living with a neighbour, using her body to augment the larder and employing a smattering of Russian she picked up on travels in Russia to intervene on behalf of neighbours and to gain protection of Russian officers.

The writer endures and experiences the worse excesses of the occupation. She makes faultless observations about the way life unfolds under encroaching Russian occupation. Her descriptive talent paints vivid portraits of the neighbours, the Germans who share the basement `cave' in a clannish, pre-occupation retreat to before civilisation. She also applies her even handed language to the Russians, marvelling at the variety in personalities, types and manners. By some she is treated almost as an equal, or as a lady. Others smash her to the floor as the spoils of war.

As much as the account horrifies as the accounts of rape become an almost flippant daily discussion between the women, there are also touching moments of kindness and humanity, between neighbours and between the occupiers and occupied. But these are small flickers of light in the thick darkness of the Götterdamerung. There is violence, cruelty and vicious retribution for what Germans did in the Soviet Union.

It is a remarkable record, a flawless account of the most extraordinary of times and a testament to how people react in the most pressured of situations, the instinct for survival taking over. Without bitterness, recrimination or analysing the event long after it happened, this is raw, urgent yet erudite and poetic.

This is an historical record that well deserves the wider audience it will receive following the release of the cinematic adaptation.

A fascinating piece of history, 19 Feb 2008
We are very fortunate that this anonymous woman kept a diary of the terrible events that happened to her and many other German women living in berlin at the end of WWII,because otherwise this is a part of history that would forever remain hushed up.
The author writed with total honesty and clarity,without any self pity and even with a touch of black humour.This is a really fascinating diary written using the authors journalistic talent.It's a shame she never received the credit she deserved for this important piece of history within her lifetime.

An essential book about Berlin in 1945, 05 Feb 2008
Other than fully endorsing what other reviewers have said about the power of this extraordinary account of the ending of the war in Berlin, from April 1945 and the next two or three months, I would simply draw attention to the immediacy of the writing.

It makes highly uncomfortable reading to be taken right into the dusty, half-lit, and stinking basements, where the writer and other people sheltered during the final days, or to travel with her as she makes her way on her bicycle through the rubble of the city, and, yes, to hear of how she copes (and she does cope) with the ordeal of repeated rape. But you finish the book with the strongest possible sense of her dignity, humanity, intelligence and sheer determination to survive. This is essential reading.

A shocking reminder..., 10 Nov 2007
I read this book keeping in mind not only the described facts by the (anonymous) author, but the terrible circumstances it was written under... in my opinion it is a very valuable document that tells us about the terrible (and wonderful) things we all are capable of under war conditions, perhaps useful to wake up and keep in mind the effects our actions have on other human beigns... in my opinion, a series of facts that must not be forgotten, ever. An excellent reading, no doubt, light and deep at the time...

This price is an insult, 08 Apr 2008
to the true genius of this man. He understood it like no other to capture the spirit of his century, to describe the true face of womanhood and to portrait society as a whole with all his flaws and good sides. Having only read his main oeuvre, i.e. The Picture of Dorian Gray, and few of his short stories, I could impossibly comment on his poetical work. Yet, his prose work identifies him as a true genius and the price of this book doesn't do justice to his life work. Still, to the morally flexible, lacking every sense of honor and respect for this man's art, I strongly advise the seize the occasion and order the book. It's a must-have.

Superb, 31 Jul 2000
Wilde's personal style and sparkling wit make this collection a treasure. Wilde is undoubtedly the greatest playwright this country has ever produced. Buy it.

Oscar Wilde--the BOSS..., 12 Feb 2000
Oscar Wilde's consummate skill in shedding light on the deepest recesses of the human psyche and his inimitable wit can only be compared to living a thousand lives in the twinkling of an eye... Shakespeare's reincarnation, perhaps...?

Works of true genius, 18 Sep 1999
Wilde can not be beaten - whether it is his passionate poetry, witty plays or his masterpieces - 'The Picture of Dorian Grey' and the breathtaking letter "De Profundis". He is sensual and so human that one can not help but cry and laugh along with his work. His philosophy, doctrines and morals combine with a tremendous feel for the beautiful and entertaining to produce the most remarkable works. So much love and pain is evident in all his pieces that they do not only affect one as fascinating examples of art but are instead felt in one's life.

Count your blessings, 26 Oct 2008
I write this in late 2008 as the global financial system goes into meltdown and the credit crunch is really biting into our individual pockets. What Nella Last would make of our sickeningly materialistic, wasteful, 'spend spend spend' times I cannot imagine!
On a domestic level we could all learn a lot from Nella's money-saving, waste-avoiding methods. Her descriptions of the meals she contrives are fascinating, and her make-do-and-mend philosophy would put us all to shame.
Aside from the domestic detail, Nella writes movingly about her thoughts and feelings as a wife and mother living through a second war, and especially about the changing role of women and her own sense of liberation through war work.
This should be be required reading for everyone lucky enough to have grown up in times of peace and plenty.

Just read it!, 26 Feb 2008
I can only add to the unalloyed praise of others and wish that Nella Last could know what pleasure and enlightenment her "scribbling" would bring to others over 60 years later.

She writes beautifully and naturally, but what's most interesting is the way she changes as the war progresses. At the beginning she is sickly and weak, plagued with arthritis, and refers to a "breakdown" she had a few years before. But she determines to "do something" for the war effort and joins the WVS. From there she goes from strength to strength, and the evolution of her ideas is fascinating; she comes to see her conventional marriage to an old stick of a husband as "slavery". She's also very observant and perceptive of the people around her.
She writes lyrically of walks home by moonlight, and trips out to the countryside at Coniston Water, but also of the stresses of the blitz, the challenges of getting palatable meals on the table every day, and everyday squabbles and power games at the WVS. She has a truly open mind, always questioning and wondering what the future holds for her sons and the other young people she knows.

I don't want to say too much about it; just read it. It's one of those books where you long to meet the author; she really does seem like someone you know and admire.

Quite Incredible - read it, 20 Feb 2008
A fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. Nella could never have imagined that her diaries would have such meaning so many years after she wrote them. The detail is interesting in it's own right and well written. I love the ins and outs of Nella's life and difficulties. I am interested in the people she writes about. I worry for her sons with her. But beyond that, she has made me look at myself. I have started to look at the way I cook, wastage, how to make things last and go further. The book has made me consider some of my own personal relationships and opened my eyes to the way a mother feels and thinks about her son. It has had me thinking about my grandmother and how she would have gone through the same thing. I hope Nella can look down and know how wonderful this book is.

An Ordinary Woman living through an Extraordinary time. , 09 Feb 2008
This is a book that I really enjoyed. Nella Last is an ordinary housewife aged 49 in the second world war, and it is the story of her everyday life, and how the war affected it, and how she coped. I have total admiration for the people who lived through world wars, in whatever capacity, whether military or civilian. I think that we really don't appreciate their efforts enough, and speaking for myself, I really don't know very much about what it was like in war-time, other than what I have read or seen on tv. I empathised with her so much when her boys went to do their military service, and she tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' while quietly breaking her heart. I loved the fact that she didn't just allow herself to be dominated by her husband, that she found her niche in the shop and the canteen, and she never lost sight of what she thought was important. These people went through so much, yet never lost their sense of humour, or their ability to make the best of a very bad situation. It is a great read, and a marvellous insight into the British personality, I feel. I wonder how Nella Last would feel, knowing that her 'scribblings' as she called them, were being read avidly 60 years after the war, and appreciated and enjoyed by people whose lives would be so altered had the outcome of that war been different.

Utterly engrossing, 18 Sep 2007
Like many other reviewers here, I bought this book having enjoyed the TV dramatisation so much. I was not disappointed! There is a great deal to enjoy as the diaries give so much detail about many different aspects of life during the Second World War. Nella's growing awareness of her own abilities and her increased self-confidence as she has to tackle new challenges are an indication of the changes in women's lives that would eventually surface during the following decades. She speaks to us so directly through these diaries, that you feel totally involved in her experiences. She also displays humour and perception, and I was sorry to come to the end of the book.

The other side of war, 14 Nov 2008
A "Woman in Berlin" is the frank and honest diary of a young woman caught up in the dark days during the fall of Berlin in 1945. The book contains an excellent forward from Antony Beevor the historian who wrote the equally compelling "Berlin the Downfall".
This extraordinary work has an interesting history. It was first published in 1953 to a German public that was not quite ready to face such brutal truths. It quickly disappeared from view and after many decades slowly re-emerged. It is now an international phenomenon and has recently been made into a film which will only enhance its reputation further.
The diary is well written as you would expect from someone who has travelled Europe in the publishing trade. The diary does not tell us exactly what she did. That she is extremely intelligent and articulate there is no doubt. She reads such literary greats as Goethe and has travelled Europe.
Those who might seek titillation in such a book will probably be dissappointed. I hope so. The rapes that she endured so stoically are not sensationalised in any way. She accepted that she could not alter the situation and did her best to live through it. There is no doubt that Stalins Red Army raped on a huge scale in the early days. These were men who were out to revenge horrific atrocities against there own population. They were men who had often been on the front for years. No home leave for most of them. They were mainly simple workers with a smattering of intelligentsia. They felt it was their right to treat German women as war booty and they did so with impunity.
We follow the diary through the brutal early days and find this well read woman sleeping with a simple Russian peasant. One of the incongruity's that war throws up. She is not beneath sleeping with Russians for food to survive. A fact that would have upset many Germans. Many of the German men at that time were helpless to prevent assaults on their womenfolk and felt emasculated. The matter was best swept under the carpet. The matter was not talked about. Even today there are those that refuse to believe these events ever took place. My own Mother who lived through that era is among them. She believes the diary to be a lie and believes the Red Army would never have behaved in such a way. Having read this account and many others I have long been convinced that these events occurred. I would no more deny this than deny that the world was round. The bulk of evidence is convincing. But what convinced me most was her many descriptions of the more mundane tasks like collecting nettles.
I will not give five stars purely on the basis that I am not sure I like the diarist as a person. I sometimes find her comments grate. That is her character and another good case for authenticity. I disliked her comments about the elderly. She describes old age as something to be pitied, not venerated in those desperate times. Often true that the elderly and the very young are the first to suffer at such times. But surely if we behave in such a way then we are no better than the beasts. She quotes the Lapps and Indians as leaving the old to perish when they have gone past usefulness. However it is a fact that many ancient cultures venerate the elderly. As we should.
Aside from these small reservations I find this a compelling work that is deserving of its growing reputation. It is the grittier adult version of Anne Franks diary. It is as the hype says a chilling indictment of war. An important and serious work in the can'on of war literature. Read it.


A remarkable, even poetic account of a vicious time, 02 Nov 2008
In the middle of chaos, amidst the wreckage of the broken city, the anonymous author marvels at the innocence of a baby girl with copper ringlets of hair. Against the dirt, grime, hunger and rape that have become normal life for Berliners, this chubby, pink baby seems a strange reminder of what normality was before the city was occupied.

In a similar vein this diary is a thing of strange beauty, a product of, but completely alien to, the senseless cruelties and world turned upside down Berlin the writer inhabits in those strangest of last days and new beginnings.

This is the story of a few weeks, a little more than two months meticulously detailed in a thoughtful, almost detached. It is no surprise that the author had a background in journalism and editing, nor that she had travelled and had little of the xenophobic closed mindset of Nazi Germany. But she still feels. She is humiliated, degraded and afraid, albeit capable of recognising, cataloguing and exploring these emotions and setting them down on paper.

The writer is a middle class woman, educated and travelled. She has lived through the Second World War and is now battling on the front line as it sweeps into and takes over Berlin. She is reduced to living with a neighbour, using her body to augment the larder and employing a smattering of Russian she picked up on travels in Russia to intervene on behalf of neighbours and to gain protection of Russian officers.

The writer endures and experiences the worse excesses of the occupation. She makes faultless observations about the way life unfolds under encroaching Russian occupation. Her descriptive talent paints vivid portraits of the neighbours, the Germans who share the basement `cave' in a clannish, pre-occupation retreat to before civilisation. She also applies her even handed language to the Russians, marvelling at the variety in personalities, types and manners. By some she is treated almost as an equal, or as a lady. Others smash her to the floor as the spoils of war.

As much as the account horrifies as the accounts of rape become an almost flippant daily discussion between the women, there are also touching moments of kindness and humanity, between neighbours and between the occupiers and occupied. But these are small flickers of light in the thick darkness of the Götterdamerung. There is violence, cruelty and vicious retribution for what Germans did in the Soviet Union.

It is a remarkable record, a flawless account of the most extraordinary of times and a testament to how people react in the most pressured of situations, the instinct for survival taking over. Without bitterness, recrimination or analysing the event long after it happened, this is raw, urgent yet erudite and poetic.

This is an historical record that well deserves the wider audience it will receive following the release of the cinematic adaptation.

A fascinating piece of history, 19 Feb 2008
We are very fortunate that this anonymous woman kept a diary of the terrible events that happened to her and many other German women living in berlin at the end of WWII,because otherwise this is a part of history that would forever remain hushed up.
The author writed with total honesty and clarity,without any self pity and even with a touch of black humour.This is a really fascinating diary written using the authors journalistic talent.It's a shame she never received the credit she deserved for this important piece of history within her lifetime.

An essential book about Berlin in 1945, 05 Feb 2008
Other than fully endorsing what other reviewers have said about the power of this extraordinary account of the ending of the war in Berlin, from April 1945 and the next two or three months, I would simply draw attention to the immediacy of the writing.

It makes highly uncomfortable reading to be taken right into the dusty, half-lit, and stinking basements, where the writer and other people sheltered during the final days, or to travel with her as she makes her way on her bicycle through the rubble of the city, and, yes, to hear of how she copes (and she does cope) with the ordeal of repeated rape. But you finish the book with the strongest possible sense of her dignity, humanity, intelligence and sheer determination to survive. This is essential reading.

A shocking reminder..., 10 Nov 2007
I read this book keeping in mind not only the described facts by the (anonymous) author, but the terrible circumstances it was written under... in my opinion it is a very valuable document that tells us about the terrible (and wonderful) things we all are capable of under war conditions, perhaps useful to wake up and keep in mind the effects our actions have on other human beigns... in my opinion, a series of facts that must not be forgotten, ever. An excellent reading, no doubt, light and deep at the time...

This price is an insult, 08 Apr 2008
to the true genius of this man. He understood it like no other to capture the spirit of his century, to describe the true face of womanhood and to portrait society as a whole with all his flaws and good sides. Having only read his main oeuvre, i.e. The Picture of Dorian Gray, and few of his short stories, I could impossibly comment on his poetical work. Yet, his prose work identifies him as a true genius and the price of this book doesn't do justice to his life work. Still, to the morally flexible, lacking every sense of honor and respect for this man's art, I strongly advise the seize the occasion and order the book. It's a must-have.

Superb, 31 Jul 2000
Wilde's personal style and sparkling wit make this collection a treasure. Wilde is undoubtedly the greatest playwright this country has ever produced. Buy it.

Oscar Wilde--the BOSS..., 12 Feb 2000
Oscar Wilde's consummate skill in shedding light on the deepest recesses of the human psyche and his inimitable wit can only be compared to living a thousand lives in the twinkling of an eye... Shakespeare's reincarnation, perhaps...?

Works of true genius, 18 Sep 1999
Wilde can not be beaten - whether it is his passionate poetry, witty plays or his masterpieces - 'The Picture of Dorian Grey' and the breathtaking letter "De Profundis". He is sensual and so human that one can not help but cry and laugh along with his work. His philosophy, doctrines and morals combine with a tremendous feel for the beautiful and entertaining to produce the most remarkable works. So much love and pain is evident in all his pieces that they do not only affect one as fascinating examples of art but are instead felt in one's life.

Fraser at his best, 01 Sep 2008
Anyone who is even vaguely interested in the Second World War should read this, the memoirs of an ordinary soldier who fought in the Burma campaign. It is, in my opinion, the best autobiographical account of that war ever written. Fraser tells it like it undoubtedly was, and doesn't succumb to political correctness or any other sort of modern nonsense.

Grandarse for PM, 13 Jun 2008
This is one of the best war memoirs you will ever read. I first read it as an officer serving in the British Army and I can tell you that he nails the Army spot on: the camaraderie, the banter, the humour and, above all, the unreal, shocking suddenness of combat. As well as the riotous belly laughs we expect from GMF, 'Quartered Safe out Here' also has moments of great poignancy and sadness. It is written with Fraser's characteristic verve, candour and wit, as well as his peerless eye for characterisation and dialogue; this really is how soldiers think, feel and speak, and this - with all its humour, bravery, pathos, excitement and absurdity - is how wars are actually fought. If I might offer a tip, it would be to read it in conjunction with Slim's 'Defeat into Victory' to compare the grand strategic narrative of the Burma campaign with the view from the rifle pit.

His comparisons of Britain then and now (or then and 1992, when this book was written) do occasionally sound like an old man's sentimentality for the world of his youth but, then again, Fraser has every right to feel agrieved at seeing the peace that he and his generation bought squandered, as he saw it, by selfishness and greed. Clearly, these bits are unlikely to appeal to you if you voted New Labour....but, as another reviewer has noted, that's your problem.

'Quartered Safe out Here' is a virtuoso piece of memoir writing, a military equivalent to 'The Moon's a Balloon' or 'Unreliable Memoirs'. But as well as being a thumping good read on it own account, this really is soldiering as it actually happens. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Love Affair with a Rifle?, 19 Apr 2008
The late-George MacDonald Fraser chronicles his part in the latter days of the Second World War as a rifleman in a Cumbrian infantry battlion. The author talks about his issue First World War Short Magazine Lee Enfield .303 rifle as if it were is wife. He lavished care on his rifle as it was necessary to save his life when fighting the Japanese in the Burmese jungles and plains.
The characters of his fellow infantrymen are brought alive by the author's graphic descriptions of them. The encounter of the password challenge is laugh-out-loud-funny; as is the incident at the well and the meeting with the eccentric Captain Grief. George writes in endearing terms about the Cumbrian soldiers and Ghurkas. Matters of life and death are described from the perspective of the best soldier in the world - the British Tommy.
Inevitably the book refers to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan which precripitated the end of the war. The author also compared and contrasted his experiences of British reserve, exemplified by soldiers of his generation, with the media prompted soul-bearering of those soldiers preparing for the Gulf War.
This book is not politically correct, nor was it intended to be, it is a genuine exposition of war from a soldier who experienced it first hand. These have coloured his view of the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and those critics of the atomic bomb. It probably would not make comfortable reading for people of a liberal or pacifist leaning. The author does pontificate about political correctness, race and nuclear issues - after what he experienced he has earned that right.
This book is one of the best reads about the fighting in Burma. It is an honest account of men at war: Full of pathos, grit and humour. A fitting tribute to the dour Cumbrian men who served in Nine Section.


Wonderfully insightful. Moving and very funny., 06 Nov 2007
George MacDonald Fraser is a master with a pen in his hand. He has a knack for sound sense, and he can also be very funny. All three traits are brought gracefully together in this superb book.

I should point out that there is nothing Flashmanesque about Quartered Safe Out Here, but the book is none the poorer for that. The writing is typically fluent, charming, broad, and witty; and the characterisation is, characteristically, splendid. There is also something deeply moving about his exploits in Burma with the XIV Army during The Second World War. As a personal window into 'The Forgotten Army' there can surely be few better examples.

If you are inclined towards 'Political Correctness', you may take issue with some aspects of this work. But then, that's your problem.

Britain is running out of men like George MacDonald Fraser. And it should try and do something about that.

Thank you Mr Fraser.

Yet to read but know the history, 09 Sep 2007
I have only just encountered this book this weekend and read a few chapters after being "lent" a hard copy from my partners father whose father in law was one of the chindits who served in Burma. Her grand father also passed my partner a copy of the map he was issued and we visitied Burma last year for 3 weeks to see how close to get to where he served. An incredible regiment. When he told me over Christmas lunch many years ago that "yes, he got it right, thats how the bloody Japanese soap smelled", you know he got it right. 14 out of 19 reports give it a 5/5. This is not a Flashman book, its a guts and all report of a bloody battle and the humour that kept people going in a raw, yet beautiful country.....still to this day.

Count your blessings, 26 Oct 2008
I write this in late 2008 as the global financial system goes into meltdown and the credit crunch is really biting into our individual pockets. What Nella Last would make of our sickeningly materialistic, wasteful, 'spend spend spend' times I cannot imagine!
On a domestic level we could all learn a lot from Nella's money-saving, waste-avoiding methods. Her descriptions of the meals she contrives are fascinating, and her make-do-and-mend philosophy would put us all to shame.
Aside from the domestic detail, Nella writes movingly about her thoughts and feelings as a wife and mother living through a second war, and especially about the changing role of women and her own sense of liberation through war work.
This should be be required reading for everyone lucky enough to have grown up in times of peace and plenty.

Just read it!, 26 Feb 2008
I can only add to the unalloyed praise of others and wish that Nella Last could know what pleasure and enlightenment her "scribbling" would bring to others over 60 years later.

She writes beautifully and naturally, but what's most interesting is the way she changes as the war progresses. At the beginning she is sickly and weak, plagued with arthritis, and refers to a "breakdown" she had a few years before. But she determines to "do something" for the war effort and joins the WVS. From there she goes from strength to strength, and the evolution of her ideas is fascinating; she comes to see her conventional marriage to an old stick of a husband as "slavery". She's also very observant and perceptive of the people around her.
She writes lyrically of walks home by moonlight, and trips out to the countryside at Coniston Water, but also of the stresses of the blitz, the challenges of getting palatable meals on the table every day, and everyday squabbles and power games at the WVS. She has a truly open mind, always questioning and wondering what the future holds for her sons and the other young people she knows.

I don't want to say too much about it; just read it. It's one of those books where you long to meet the author; she really does seem like someone you know and admire.

Quite Incredible - read it, 20 Feb 2008
A fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. Nella could never have imagined that her diaries would have such meaning so many years after she wrote them. The detail is interesting in it's own right and well written. I love the ins and outs of Nella's life and difficulties. I am interested in the people she writes about. I worry for her sons with her. But beyond that, she has made me look at myself. I have started to look at the way I cook, wastage, how to make things last and go further. The book has made me consider some of my own personal relationships and opened my eyes to the way a mother feels and thinks about her son. It has had me thinking about my grandmother and how she would have gone through the same thing. I hope Nella can look down and know how wonderful this book is.

An Ordinary Woman living through an Extraordinary time. , 09 Feb 2008
This is a book that I really enjoyed. Nella Last is an ordinary housewife aged 49 in the second world war, and it is the story of her everyday life, and how the war affected it, and how she coped. I have total admiration for the people who lived through world wars, in whatever capacity, whether military or civilian. I think that we really don't appreciate their efforts enough, and speaking for myself, I really don't know very much about what it was like in war-time, other than what I have read or seen on tv. I empathised with her so much when her boys went to do their military service, and she tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' while quietly breaking her heart. I loved the fact that she didn't just allow herself to be dominated by her husband, that she found her niche in the shop and the canteen, and she never lost sight of what she thought was important. These people went through so much, yet never lost their sense of humour, or their ability to make the best of a very bad situation. It is a great read, and a marvellous insight into the British personality, I feel. I wonder how Nella Last would feel, knowing that her 'scribblings' as she called them, were being read avidly 60 years after the war, and appreciated and enjoyed by people whose lives would be so altered had the outcome of that war been different.

Utterly engrossing, 18 Sep 2007
Like many other reviewers here, I bought this book having enjoyed the TV dramatisation so much. I was not disappointed! There is a great deal to enjoy as the diaries give so much detail about many different aspects of life during the Second World War. Nella's growing awareness of her own abilities and her increased self-confidence as she has to tackle new challenges are an indication of the changes in women's lives that would eventually surface during the following decades. She speaks to us so directly through these diaries, that you feel totally involved in her experiences. She also displays humour and perception, and I was sorry to come to the end of the book.

The other side of war, 14 Nov 2008
A "Woman in Berlin" is the frank and honest diary of a young woman caught up in the dark days during the fall of Berlin in 1945. The book contains an excellent forward from Antony Beevor the historian who wrote the equally compelling "Berlin the Downfall".
This extraordinary work has an interesting history. It was first published in 1953 to a German public that was not quite ready to face such brutal truths. It quickly disappeared from view and after many decades slowly re-emerged. It is now an international phenomenon and has recently been made into a film which will only enhance its reputation further.
The diary is well written as you would expect from someone who has travelled Europe in the publishing trade. The diary does not tell us exactly what she did. That she is extremely intelligent and articulate there is no doubt. She reads such literary greats as Goethe and has travelled Europe.
Those who might seek titillation in such a book will probably be dissappointed. I hope so. The rapes that she endured so stoically are not sensationalised in any way. She accepted that she could not alter the situation and did her best to live through it. There is no doubt that Stalins Red Army raped on a huge scale in the early days. These were men who were out to revenge horrific atrocities against there own population. They were men who had often been on the front for years. No home leave for most of them. They were mainly simple workers with a smattering of intelligentsia. They felt it was their right to treat German women as war booty and they did so with impunity.
We follow the diary through the brutal early days and find this well read woman sleeping with a simple Russian peasant. One of the incongruity's that war throws up. She is not beneath sleeping with Russians for food to survive. A fact that would have upset many Germans. Many of the German men at that time were helpless to prevent assaults on their womenfolk and felt emasculated. The matter was best swept under the carpet. The matter was not talked about. Even today there are those that refuse to believe these events ever took place. My own Mother who lived through that era is among them. She believes the diary to be a lie and believes the Red Army would never have behaved in such a way. Having read this account and many others I have long been convinced that these events occurred. I would no more deny this than deny that the world was round. The bulk of evidence is convincing. But what convinced me most was her many descriptions of the more mundane tasks like collecting nettles.
I will not give five stars purely on the basis that I am not sure I like the diarist as a person. I sometimes find her comments grate. That is her character and another good case for authenticity. I disliked her comments about the elderly. She describes old age as something to be pitied, not venerated in those desperate times. Often true that the elderly and the very young are the first to suffer at such times. But surely if we behave in such a way then we are no better than the beasts. She quotes the Lapps and Indians as leaving the old to perish when they have gone past usefulness. However it is a fact that many ancient cultures venerate the elderly. As we should.
Aside from these small reservations I find this a compelling work that is deserving of its growing reputation. It is the grittier adult version of Anne Franks diary. It is as the hype says a chilling indictment of war. An important and serious work in the can'on of war literature. Read it.


A remarkable, even poetic account of a vicious time, 02 Nov 2008
In the middle of chaos, amidst the wreckage of the broken city, the anonymous author marvels at the innocence of a baby girl with copper ringlets of hair. Against the dirt, grime, hunger and rape that have become normal life for Berliners, this chubby, pink baby seems a strange reminder of what normality was before the city was occupied.

In a similar vein this diary is a thing of strange beauty, a product of, but completely alien to, the senseless cruelties and world turned upside down Berlin the writer inhabits in those strangest of last days and new beginnings.

This is the story of a few weeks, a little more than two months meticulously detailed in a thoughtful, almost detached. It is no surprise that the author had a background in journalism and editing, nor that she had travelled and had little of the xenophobic closed mindset of Nazi Germany. But she still feels. She is humiliated, degraded and afraid, albeit capable of recognising, cataloguing and exploring these emotions and setting them down on paper.

The writer is a middle class woman, educated and travelled. She has lived through the Second World War and is now battling on the front line as it sweeps into and takes over Berlin. She is reduced to living with a neighbour, using her body to augment the larder and employing a smattering of Russian she picked up on travels in Russia to intervene on behalf of neighbours and to gain protection of Russian officers.

The writer endures and experiences the worse excesses of the occupation. She makes faultless observations about the way life unfolds under encroaching Russian occupation. Her descriptive talent paints vivid portraits of the neighbours, the Germans who share the basement `cave' in a clannish, pre-occupation retreat to before civilisation. She also applies her even handed language to the Russians, marvelling at the variety in personalities, types and manners. By some she is treated almost as an equal, or as a lady. Others smash her to the floor as the spoils of war.

As much as the account horrifies as the accounts of rape become an almost flippant daily discussion between the women, there are also touching moments of kindness and humanity, between neighbours and between the occupiers and occupied. But these are small flickers of light in the thick darkness of the Götterdamerung. There is violence, cruelty and vicious retribution for what Germans did in the Soviet Union.

It is a remarkable record, a flawless account of the most extraordinary of times and a testament to how people react in the most pressured of situations, the instinct for survival taking over. Without bitterness, recrimination or analysing the event long after it happened, this is raw, urgent yet erudite and poetic.

This is an historical record that well deserves the wider audience it will receive following the release of the cinematic adaptation.

A fascinating piece of history, 19 Feb 2008
We are very fortunate that this anonymous woman kept a diary of the terrible events that happened to her and many other German women living in berlin at the end of WWII,because otherwise this is a part of history that would forever remain hushed up.
The author writed with total honesty and clarity,without any self pity and even with a touch of black humour.This is a really fascinating diary written using the authors journalistic talent.It's a shame she never received the credit she deserved for this important piece of history within her lifetime.

An essential book about Berlin in 1945, 05 Feb 2008
Other than fully endorsing what other reviewers have said about the power of this extraordinary account of the ending of the war in Berlin, from April 1945 and the next two or three months, I would simply draw attention to the immediacy of the writing.

It makes highly uncomfortable reading to be taken right into the dusty, half-lit, and stinking basements, where the writer and other people sheltered during the final days, or to travel with her as she makes her way on her bicycle through the rubble of the city, and, yes, to hear of how she copes (and she does cope) with the ordeal of repeated rape. But you finish the book with the strongest possible sense of her dignity, humanity, intelligence and sheer determination to survive. This is essential reading.

A shocking reminder..., 10 Nov 2007
I read this book keeping in mind not only the described facts by the (anonymous) author, but the terrible circumstances it was written under... in my opinion it is a very valuable document that tells us about the terrible (and wonderful) things we all are capable of under war conditions, perhaps useful to wake up and keep in mind the effects our actions have on other human beigns... in my opinion, a series of facts that must not be forgotten, ever. An excellent reading, no doubt, light and deep at the time...

This price is an insult, 08 Apr 2008
to the true genius of this man. He understood it like no other to capture the spirit of his century, to describe the true face of womanhood and to portrait society as a whole with all his flaws and good sides. Having only read his main oeuvre, i.e. The Picture of Dorian Gray, and few of his short stories, I could impossibly comment on his poetical work. Yet, his prose work identifies him as a true genius and the price of this book doesn't do justice to his life work. Still, to the morally flexible, lacking every sense of honor and respect for this man's art, I strongly advise the seize the occasion and order the book. It's a must-have.

Superb, 31 Jul 2000
Wilde's personal style and sparkling wit make this collection a treasure. Wilde is undoubtedly the greatest playwright this country has ever produced. Buy it.

Oscar Wilde--the BOSS..., 12 Feb 2000
Oscar Wilde's consummate skill in shedding light on the deepest recesses of the human psyche and his inimitable wit can only be compared to living a thousand lives in the twinkling of an eye... Shakespeare's reincarnation, perhaps...?

Works of true genius, 18 Sep 1999
Wilde can not be beaten - whether it is his passionate poetry, witty plays or his masterpieces - 'The Picture of Dorian Grey' and the breathtaking letter "De Profundis". He is sensual and so human that one can not help but cry and laugh along with his work. His philosophy, doctrines and morals combine with a tremendous feel for the beautiful and entertaining to produce the most remarkable works. So much love and pain is evident in all his pieces that they do not only affect one as fascinating examples of art but are instead felt in one's life.

Fraser at his best, 01 Sep 2008
Anyone who is even vaguely interested in the Second World War should read this, the memoirs of an ordinary soldier who fought in the Burma campaign. It is, in my opinion, the best autobiographical account of that war ever written. Fraser tells it like it undoubtedly was, and doesn't succumb to political correctness or any other sort of modern nonsense.

Grandarse for PM, 13 Jun 2008
This is one of the best war memoirs you will ever read. I first read it as an officer serving in the British Army and I can tell you that he nails the Army spot on: the camaraderie, the banter, the humour and, above all, the unreal, shocking suddenness of combat. As well as the riotous belly laughs we expect from GMF, 'Quartered Safe out Here' also has moments of great poignancy and sadness. It is written with Fraser's characteristic verve, candour and wit, as well as his peerless eye for characterisation and dialogue; this really is how soldiers think, feel and speak, and this - with all its humour, bravery, pathos, excitement and absurdity - is how wars are actually fought. If I might offer a tip, it would be to read it in conjunction with Slim's 'Defeat into Victory' to compare the grand strategic narrative of the Burma campaign with the view from the rifle pit.

His comparisons of Britain then and now (or then and 1992, when this book was written) do occasionally sound like an old man's sentimentality for the world of his youth but, then again, Fraser has every right to feel agrieved at seeing the peace that he and his generation bought squandered, as he saw it, by selfishness and greed. Clearly, these bits are unlikely to appeal to you if you voted New Labour....but, as another reviewer has noted, that's your problem.

'Quartered Safe out Here' is a virtuoso piece of memoir writing, a military equivalent to 'The Moon's a Balloon' or 'Unreliable Memoirs'. But as well as being a thumping good read on it own account, this really is soldiering as it actually happens. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Love Affair with a Rifle?, 19 Apr 2008
The late-George MacDonald Fraser chronicles his part in the latter days of the Second World War as a rifleman in a Cumbrian infantry battlion. The author talks about his issue First World War Short Magazine Lee Enfield .303 rifle as if it were is wife. He lavished care on his rifle as it was necessary to save his life when fighting the Japanese in the Burmese jungles and plains.
The characters of his fellow infantrymen are brought alive by the author's graphic descriptions of them. The encounter of the password challenge is laugh-out-loud-funny; as is the incident at the well and the meeting with the eccentric Captain Grief. George writes in endearing terms about the Cumbrian soldiers and Ghurkas. Matters of life and death are described from the perspective of the best soldier in the world - the British Tommy.
Inevitably the book refers to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan which precripitated the end of the war. The author also compared and contrasted his experiences of British reserve, exemplified by soldiers of his generation, with the media prompted soul-bearering of those soldiers preparing for the Gulf War.
This book is not politically correct, nor was it intended to be, it is a genuine exposition of war from a soldier who experienced it first hand. These have coloured his view of the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and those critics of the atomic bomb. It probably would not make comfortable reading for people of a liberal or pacifist leaning. The author does pontificate about political correctness, race and nuclear issues - after what he experienced he has earned that right.
This book is one of the best reads about the fighting in Burma. It is an honest account of men at war: Full of pathos, grit and humour. A fitting tribute to the dour Cumbrian men who served in Nine Section.


Wonderfully insightful. Moving and very funny., 06 Nov 2007
George MacDonald Fraser is a master with a pen in his hand. He has a knack for sound sense, and he can also be very funny. All three traits are brought gracefully together in this superb book.

I should point out that there is nothing Flashmanesque about Quartered Safe Out Here, but the book is none the poorer for that. The writing is typically fluent, charming, broad, and witty; and the characterisation is, characteristically, splendid. There is also something deeply moving about his exploits in Burma with the XIV Army during The Second World War. As a personal window into 'The Forgotten Army' there can surely be few better examples.

If you are inclined towards 'Political Correctness', you may take issue with some aspects of this work. But then, that's your problem.

Britain is running out of men like George MacDonald Fraser. And it should try and do something about that.

Thank you Mr Fraser.

Yet to read but know the history, 09 Sep 2007
I have only just encountered this book this weekend and read a few chapters after being "lent" a hard copy from my partners father whose father in law was one of the chindits who served in Burma. Her grand father also passed my partner a copy of the map he was issued and we visitied Burma last year for 3 weeks to see how close to get to where he served. An incredible regiment. When he told me over Christmas lunch many years ago that "yes, he got it right, thats how the bloody Japanese soap smelled", you know he got it right. 14 out of 19 reports give it a 5/5. This is not a Flashman book, its a guts and all report of a bloody battle and the humour that kept people going in a raw, yet beautiful country.....still to this day.

Real history in the making, 21 Mar 2001
Many books have been penned about Ancient Rome. Some are well written and know what the're talking about - whilst others are long-winded and can bore you to tears in thirty seconds. Well, how about slicing through all that - and reading the words of a man who was actually there?

Pliny (the Younger) was a Roman nobleman born around 61AD. He served as a magistrate under the emperor Trajan, and was the nephew of Pliny (the Elder) the famous statesman and writer. It's refreshing to read the words of an actual Roman for a change instead of those of ancient or modern historians, and Pliny's letters cover many fascinating aspects of roman life. Also gratifying is that often we are also given the replies.

Among the topics covered are; family, villas, court cases, hobbies, and poetry (his own verses, it must be said, stink!). How refreshing to get inside a Roman nobleman's head, and share his thoughts (even though his letters were written perhaps with "one eye" on their eventual publication).

The most famous letter is addressed to his friend the roman historian Tacitus who has asked for an account of his uncle's death in the eruption of Vesuvius. This of course took place in 79AD and caused the destruction of both Pompeii and other towns in the Bay of Naples).

The translator Betty Radice has done a very good job rendering the letters into modern english and her twenty-two page introduction makes interesting reading. Brief appendices include a short glossary and three maps. If "real" roman history is your thing - you can't beat this collection!

Here are just a few excerpts:-

To: Valerius Paulinus "I am furious with you, rightly or not I don't know, but it makes no difference. You know very well that love is sometimes unfair, often violent, and always quick to take offence, but I have good reason, whether or not it is a just one, to be as furious as I would be in a just cause. It is so long since I had a letter from you. The only way to placate me is to write me a lot of letters now, at long last - lengthy ones, too."

To: Sempronius Rufus "I had gone down to the Basilica Julia to listen to the speeches in a case where I had to appear for the defence at the next hearing. The court was seated, the presiding magistrates had arrived and counsel on both sides were coming and going; then there was a long silence, broken at last by a message from the Praetor. The court adjourned and the case was suspended, much to my delight for I am never so well prepared as not to be glad of a delay"

To: Cornelius Tacitus "I should like to obey your orders,but when you tell me I ought to honour Diana along with Minerva I find it impossible - there is such a shortage of boars. So I can only serve Minerva, and even her in the lazy way to be expected during a summer holiday.

On my way here I made up some bits of nonesense (not worth keeping) in the conversational style one uses when travelling, and I added something to them once I was here and had nothing better to do; but peace reigns over the poems which you fancy are only too easy to finish in the woods and groves. I have revised one or two short speeches, though this is the sort of disagreeable task I detest and is more like one of the hardships of country life than it's pleasures."

An accessable and enjoyable book, 19 Mar 2001
Many books have been penned about Ancient Rome. Some are well written and know what the're talking about - whilst others are long-winded and can bore you to tears in thirty seconds. Well, how about slicing through all that - and reading the words of a man who was actually there?

Pliny (the Younger) was a Roman nobleman born around 61AD. He served as a magistrate under the emperor Trajan, and was the nephew of Pliny (the Elder) the famous statesman and writer. It's refreshing to read the words of an actual Roman for a change instead of those of ancient or modern historians, and Pliny's letters cover many fascinating aspects of roman life. Also gratifying is that often we are also given the replies.

Among the topics covered are; family, villas, court cases, hobbies, and poetry (his own verses, it must be said, stink!). How refreshing to get inside a Roman nobleman's head, and share his thoughts (even though his letters were written perhaps with "one eye" on their eventual publication).

The most famous letter is addressed to his friend the roman historian Tacitus who has asked for an account of his uncle's death in the eruption of Vesuvius. This of course took place in 79AD and caused the destruction of both Pompeii and other towns in the Bay of Naples).

The translator Betty Radice has done a very good job rendering the letters into modern english and her twenty-two page introduction makes interesting reading. Brief appendices include a short glossary and three maps. If "real" roman history is your thing - you can't beat this collection!...

Count your blessings, 26 Oct 2008
I write this in late 2008 as the global financial system goes into meltdown and the credit crunch is really biting into our individual pockets. What Nella Last would make of our sickeningly materialistic, wasteful, 'spend spend spend' times I cannot imagine!
On a domestic level we could all learn a lot from Nella's money-saving, waste-avoiding methods. Her descriptions of the meals she contrives are fascinating, and her make-do-and-mend philosophy would put us all to shame.
Aside from the domestic detail, Nella writes movingly about her thoughts and feelings as a wife and mother living through a second war, and especially about the changing role of women and her own sense of liberation through war work.
This should be be required reading for everyone lucky enough to have grown up in times of peace and plenty.

Just read it!, 26 Feb 2008
I can only add to the unalloyed praise of others and wish that Nella Last could know what pleasure and enlightenment her "scribbling" would bring to others over 60 years later.

She writes beautifully and naturally, but what's most interesting is the way she changes as the war progresses. At the beginning she is sickly and weak, plagued with arthritis, and refers to a "breakdown" she had a few years before. But she determines to "do something" for the war effort and joins the WVS. From there she goes from strength to strength, and the evolution of her ideas is fascinating; she comes to see her conventional marriage to an old stick of a husband as "slavery". She's also very observant and perceptive of the people around her.
She writes lyrically of walks home by moonlight, and trips out to the countryside at Coniston Water, but also of the stresses of the blitz, the challenges of getting palatable meals on the table every day, and everyday squabbles and power games at the WVS. She has a truly open mind, always questioning and wondering what the future holds for her sons and the other young people she knows.

I don't want to say too much about it; just read it. It's one of those books where you long to meet the author; she really does seem like someone you know and admire.

Quite Incredible - read it, 20 Feb 2008
A fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. Nella could never have imagined that her diaries would have such meaning so many years after she wrote them. The detail is interesting in it's own right and well written. I love the ins and outs of Nella's life and difficulties. I am interested in the people she writes about. I worry for her sons with her. But beyond that, she has made me look at myself. I have started to look at the way I cook, wastage, how to make things last and go further. The book has made me consider some of my own personal relationships and opened my eyes to the way a mother feels and thinks about her son. It has had me thinking about my grandmother and how she would have gone through the same thing. I hope Nella can look down and know how wonderful this book is.

An Ordinary Woman living through an Extraordinary time. , 09 Feb 2008
This is a book that I really enjoyed. Nella Last is an ordinary housewife aged 49 in the second world war, and it is the story of her everyday life, and how the war affected it, and how she coped. I have total admiration for the people who lived through world wars, in whatever capacity, whether military or civilian. I think that we really don't appreciate their efforts enough, and speaking for myself, I really don't know very much about what it was like in war-time, other than what I have read or seen on tv. I empathised with her so much when her boys went to do their military service, and she tried to keep a 'stiff upper lip' while quietly breaking her heart. I loved the fact that she didn't just allow herself to be dominated by her husband, that she found her niche in the shop and the canteen, and she never lost sight of what she thought was important. These people went through so much, yet never lost their sense of humour, or their ability to make the best of a very bad situation. It is a great read, and a marvellous insight into the British personality, I feel. I wonder how Nella Last would feel, knowing that her 'scribblings' as she called them, were being read avidly 60 years after the war, and appreciated and enjoyed by people whose lives would be so altered had the outcome of that war been different.

Utterly engrossing, 18 Sep 2007
Like many other reviewers here, I bought this book having enjoyed the TV dramatisation so much. I was not disappointed! There is a great deal to enjoy as the diaries give so much detail about many different aspects of life during the Second World War. Nella's growing awareness of her own abilities and her increased self-confidence as she has to tackle new challenges are an indication of the changes in women's lives that would eventually surface during the following decades. She speaks to us so directly through these diaries, that you feel totally involved in her experiences. She also displays humour and perception, and I was sorry to come to the end of the book.

The other side of war, 14 Nov 2008
A "Woman in Berlin" is the frank and honest diary of a young woman caught up in the dark days during the fall of Berlin in 1945. The book contains an excellent forward from Antony Beevor the historian who wrote the equally compelling "Berlin the Downfall".
This extraordinary work has an interesting history. It was first published in 1953 to a German public that was not quite ready to face such brutal truths. It quickly disappeared from view and after many decades slowly re-emerged. It is now an international phenomenon and has recently been made into a film which will only enhance its reputation further.
The diary is well written as you would expect from someone who has travelled Europe in the publishing trade. The diary does not tell us exactly what she did. That she is extremely intelligent and articulate there is no doubt. She reads such literary greats as Goethe and has travelled Europe.
Those who might seek titillation in such a book will probably be dissappointed. I hope so. The rapes that she endured so stoically are not sensationalised in any way. She accepted that she could not alter the situation and did her best to live through it. There is no doubt that Stalins Red Army raped on a huge scale in the early days. These were men who were out to revenge horrific atrocities against there own population. They were men who had often been on the front for years. No home leave for most of them. They were mainly simple workers with a smattering of intelligentsia. They felt it was their right to treat German women as war booty and they did so with impunity.
We follow the diary through the brutal early days and find this well read woman sleeping with a simple Russian peasant. One of the incongruity's that war throws up. She is not beneath sleeping with Russians for food to survive. A fact that would have upset many Germans. Many of the German men at that time were helpless to prevent assaults on their womenfolk and felt emasculated. The matter was best swept under the carpet. The matter was not talked about. Even today there are those that refuse to believe these events ever took place. My own Mother who lived through that era is among them. She believes the diary to be a lie and believes the Red Army would never have behaved in such a way. Having read this account and many others I have long been convinced that these events occurred. I would no more deny this than deny that the world was round. The bulk of evidence is convincing. But what convinced me most was her many descriptions of the more mundane tasks like collecting nettles.
I will not give five stars purely on the basis that I am not sure I like the diarist as a person. I sometimes find her comments grate. That is her character and another good case for authenticity. I disliked her comments about the elderly. She describes old age as something to be pitied, not venerated in those desperate times. Often true that the elderly and the very young are the first to suffer at such times. But surely if we behave in such a way then we are no better than the beasts. She quotes the Lapps and Indians as leaving the old to perish when they have gone past usefulness. However it is a fact that many ancient cultures venerate the elderly. As we should.
Aside from these small reservations I find this a compelling work that is deserving of its growing reputation. It is the grittier adult version of Anne Franks diary. It is as the hype says a chilling indictment of war. An important and serious work in the can'on of war literature. Read it.


A remarkable, even poetic account of a vicious time, 02 Nov 2008
In the middle of chaos, amidst the wreckage of the broken city, the anonymous author marvels at the innocence of a baby girl with copper ringlets of hair. Against the dirt, grime, hunger and rape that have become normal life for Berliners, this chubby, pink baby seems a strange reminder of what normality was before the city was occupied.

In a similar vein this diary is a thing of strange beauty, a product of, but completely alien to, the senseless cruelties and world turned upside down Berlin the writer inhabits in those strangest of last days and new beginnings.

This is the story of a few weeks, a little more than two months meticulously detailed in a thoughtful, almost detached. It is no surprise that the author had a background in journalism and editing, nor that she had travelled and had little of the xenophobic closed mindset of Nazi Germany. But she still feels. She is humiliated, degraded and afraid, albeit capable of recognising, cataloguing and exploring these emotions and setting them down on paper.

The writer is a middle class woman, educated and travelled. She has lived through the Second World War and is now battling on the front line as it sweeps into and takes over Berlin. She is reduced to living with a neighbour, using her body to augment the larder and employing a smattering of Russian she picked up on travels in Russia to intervene on behalf of neighbours and to gain protection of Russian officers.

The writer endures and experiences the worse excesses of the occupation. She makes faultless observations about the way life unfolds under encroaching Russian occupation. Her descriptive talent paints vivid portraits of the neighbours, the Germans who share the basement `cave' in a clannish, pre-occupation retreat to before civilisation. She also applies her even handed language to the Russians, marvelling at the variety in personalities, types and manners. By some she is treated almost as an equal, or as a lady. Others smash her to the floor as the spoils of war.

As much as the account horrifies as the accounts of rape become an almost flippant daily discussion between the women, there are also touching moments of kindness and humanity, between neighbours and between the occupiers and occupied. But these are small flickers of light in the thick darkness of the Götterdamerung. There is violence, cruelty and vicious retribution for what Germans did in the Soviet Union.

It is a remarkable record, a flawless account of the most extraordinary of times and a testament to how people react in the most pressured of situations, the instinct for survival taking over. Without bitterness, recrimination or analysing the event long after it happened, this is raw, urgent yet erudite and poetic.

This is an historical record that well deserves the wider audience it will receive following the release of the cinematic adaptation.

A fascinating piece of history, 19 Feb 2008
We are very fortunate that this anonymous woman kept a diary of the terrible events that happened to her and many other German women living in berlin at the end of WWII,because otherwise this is a part of history that would forever remain hushed up.
The author writed with total honesty and clarity,without any self pity and even with a touch of black humour.This is a really fascinating diary written using the authors journalistic talent.It's a shame she never received the credit she deserved for this important piece of history within her lifetime.

An essential book about Berlin in 1945, 05 Feb 2008
Other than fully endorsing what other reviewers have said about the power of this extraordinary account of the ending of the war in Berlin, from April 1945 and the next two or three months, I would simply draw attention to the immediacy of the writing.

It makes highly uncomfortable reading to be taken right into the dusty, half-lit, and stinking basements, where the writer and other people sheltered during the final days, or to travel with her as she makes her way on her bicycle through the rubble of the city, and, yes, to hear of how she copes (and she does cope) with the ordeal of repeated rape. But you finish the book with the strongest possible sense of her dignity, humanity, intelligence and sheer determination to survive. This is essential reading.

A shocking reminder..., 10 Nov 2007
I read this book keeping in mind not only the described facts by the (anonymous) author, but the terrible circumstances it was written under... in my opinion it is a very valuable document that tells us about the terrible (and wonderful) things we all are capable of under war conditions, perhaps useful to wake up and keep in mind the effects our actions have on other human beigns... in my opinion, a series of facts that must not be forgotten, ever. An excellent reading, no doubt, light and deep at the time...

This price is an insult, 08 Apr 2008
to the true genius of this man. He understood it like no other to capture the spirit of his century, to describe the true face of womanhood and to portrait society as a whole with all his flaws and good sides. Having only read his main oeuvre, i.e. The Picture of Dorian Gray, and few of his short stories, I could impossibly comment on his poetical work. Yet, his prose work identifies him as a true genius and the price of this book doesn't do justice to his life work. Still, to the morally flexible, lacking every sense of honor and respect for this man's art, I strongly advise the seize the occasion and order the book. It's a must-have.

Superb, 31 Jul 2000
Wilde's personal style and sparkling wit make this collection a treasure. Wilde is undoubtedly the greatest playwright this country has ever produced. Buy it.

Oscar Wilde--the BOSS..., 12 Feb 2000
Oscar Wilde's consummate skill in shedding light on the deepest recesses of the human psyche and his inimitable wit can only be compared to living a thousand lives in the twinkling of an eye... Shakespeare's reincarnation, perhaps...?

Works of true genius, 18 Sep 1999
Wilde can not be beaten - whether it is his passionate poetry, witty plays or his masterpieces - 'The Picture of Dorian Grey' and the breathtaking letter "De Profundis". He is sensual and so human that one can not help but cry and laugh along with his work. His philosophy, doctrines and morals combine with a tremendous feel for the beautiful and entertaining to produce the most remarkable works. So much love and pain is evident in all his pieces that they do not only affect one as fascinating examples of art but are instead felt in one's life.

Fraser at his best, 01 Sep 2008
Anyone who is even vaguely interested in the Second World War should read this, the memoirs of an ordinary soldier who fought in the Burma campaign. It is, in my opinion, the best autobiographical account of that war ever written. Fraser tells it like it undoubtedly was, and doesn't succumb to political correctness or any other sort of modern nonsense.

Grandarse for PM, 13 Jun 2008
This is one of the best war memoirs you will ever read. I first read it as an officer serving in the British Army and I can tell you that he nails the Army spot on: the camaraderie, the banter, the humour and, above all, the unreal, shocking suddenness of combat. As well as the riotous belly laughs we expect from GMF, 'Quartered Safe out Here' also has moments of great poignancy and sadness. It is written with Fraser's characteristic verve, candour and wit, as well as his peerless eye for characterisation and dialogue; this really is how soldiers think, feel and speak, and this - with all its humour, bravery, pathos, excitement and absurdity - is how wars are actually fought. If I might offer a tip, it would be to read it in conjunction with Slim's 'Defeat into Victory' to compare the grand strategic narrative of the Burma campaign with the view from the rifle pit.

His comparisons of Britain then and now (or then and 1992, when this book was written) do occasionally sound like an old man's sentimentality for the world of his youth but, then again, Fraser has every right to feel agrieved at seeing the peace that he and his generation bought squandered, as he saw it, by selfishness and greed. Clearly, these bits are unlikely to appeal to you if you voted New Labour....but, as another reviewer has noted, that's your problem.

'Quartered Safe out Here' is a virtuoso piece of memoir writing, a military equivalent to 'The Moon's a Balloon' or 'Unreliable Memoirs'. But as well as being a thumping good read on it own account, this really is soldiering as it actually happens. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Love Affair with a Rifle?, 19 Apr 2008
The late-George MacDonald Fraser chronicles his part in the latter days of the Second World War as a rifleman in a Cumbrian infantry battlion. The author talks about his issue First World War Short Magazine Lee Enfield .303 rifle as if it were is wife. He lavished care on his rifle as it was necessary to save his life when fighting the Japanese in the Burmese jungles and plains.
The characters of his fellow infantrymen are brought ali