The Oaken Heart - Allingham
Audio performance by Georgina Sutton
3.5 stars

Marjorie Allingham was already a well known mystery writer as England entered WW2. This memoir was commissioned by an American publisher before the United States entered the war. The intent was to give a first person account of the war’s impact on a typical English village. Although the author makes a point of saying that she is not intending to write war propaganda, (just a letter to others who may face something similar in the near future), There’s clear pro-British propaganda value in her mildly amusing anecdotes.

The tone of this memoir is very similar to the fictional Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Day to day concerns and quirky village characters create a light tone set against the larger reality. Allingham begins in the months before the declaration of war. The book was published in 1941. She speaks mostly of the ever changing adaptations to village life; rationing, blackouts, first aid preparations, and the accommodation of hundreds of evacuees.

She has some interesting thoughts about the ambiguous position of her own generation; too young for the first war, too old for the second. Her political opinions are fairly muddled and she says more than once that many things about the war will not be understood until it’s over. The book was apparently developed from a series of letters written to her American friends. She refers to friends and family in a way that assumes a previous familiarity, and I found myself getting completely lost in the ridiculous nicknames. I have no doubt that she described actual situations but I felt the author’s touch in the depiction of Auburn citizens as ‘characters’ in a story. ( )

A charming book that only reads like propaganda sometimes. Excellent for Anglophiles. ( )