My War Diary 1914-1918

Apr 20, 2025 12:37 AM

Author:Ethel M. Bilbrough

Part scrapbook, part memoir, this wonderfully colourful and eloquent diary brims with vivid observations, providing a rare snapshot of what life was like on the Home Front during the First World War.

Amateur artist, animal lover and keen writer of letters to the papers, Mrs Bilbrough witnessed the men leaving for war (her husband, Kenneth, a banker in the City, was fortunately too old to be called up); the horses at Waterloo waiting to be transported to France; bombings and airraids; the introduction of the Daylight Saving Bill and food price increases (her consternation as the price of a tin of tongue rose from 2/- to 4/6 is clear!). She also writes at her outrage at the shooting of British nurse Edith Cavell; her sadness when Lord Kitchener is drowned at sea; her alarm as Zeppelins flew over Kent and her anger at the wide-ranging German atrocities. Her relief as war ended is palpable ('PEACE! The armistice is signed, "the day" has come at last! And it is ours!').

Interspersed with her daily jottings are cuttings and cartoons, her own watercolours and drawings and the colourful flags that were sold to raise money for the troops. Charming yet moving, this diary gives us a taste of what it was really like to live through the Great War, seen from the perspective of an acute social observer.

Reviews

The Devils' Alliance is a marvellous achievement. No event was more crucial to the outbreak of the Second World War than the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939, and no one is better qualified to explore its grim implications than Roger Moorhouse

—— Norman Davies

Superbly researched and academically impeccable, yet written with all the pace of a thriller, The Devils' Alliance shines a powerful beam into one of the undeservedly least known aspects of the Second World War

—— Andrew Roberts

Meticulous and vividly readable… Moorhouse’s grim and compelling book could not be more topical

—— Sunday Telegraph

A highly enjoyable history written with verve and attention to detail

—— Financial Times

Superb

—— Brendan Simms , Wall Street Journal

Authoritative and highly readable

—— Lawrence James , The Times

Lucid and well-researched

—— Keith Lowe , Mail on Sunday

Elegant

—— Independent

Moorhouse is the best guide now available to explain…the awful consequences for those caught in the unscrupulous coils of dictatorship

—— Richard Overy , Literary Review

Thorough and eloquent... a scholarly yet accessible reminder of the frighteningly tangible costs of totalitarianism

—— New Statesman

Roger Moorhouse’s definitive book blends eyewitness accounts with an authoritative master narrative… The Devils’ Alliance is not just a good book, it’s an important one, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the two worst dictators of the 20th Century, and the calamitous conflict they both had a hand in causing

—— History of War Magazine

In this profoundly researched, briskly argued and wonderfully readable book, full of dramatic and darkly comic detail, Roger Moorhouse has done history a great service. He has rescued one of the Second World War’s dirtiest little secrets from the shadows into which the pro-Soviet bias of post-war historians had swept it and reveals in all its moral squalor the deal that made it possible for Hitler to go to war.

—— Professor Adam Zamoyski

A terrifying account of cynical diplomacy, deceit, untrammelled power and the echoes that can be heard even now

—— Sinclair McKay , Daily Telegraph

Authoritative, highly readable account.

—— Lawrence James , The Times

Intelligent, well-informed.

—— Evan Mawdsley , BBC History Magazine

Has a lot more to offer than the usual facts and figures thrown together about a largely forgotten part of history… This has a certain amount of written fluidity… I have read any number of books about this subject and I have to say that this is one of the best researched that I have found… I found it a satisfying read throughout, I learnt a lot and filled in a few holes in my knowledge, an excellent book.

—— Reg Seward , Nudge

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