Publications
Community Reminiscence Project on World War Two: Memories of the People of Herstmonceux, edited by Judith Kinnison Bourke, Julia Tolley, Sarah Wright and Trevor Cornford, published October 2008 (288 pp., Judith Kinnison Bourkes, ISBN-10: 095605000X & ISBN-13: 9780956050007) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
Review by Sarah Hitchings in Sussex Past and Present no. 118, August 2009:This book is very much a community project with just over one hundred contributors but it has an appeal well beyond its locality. The project began when Herstmonceaux Free Church made World War Two the subject of one of their monthly Sunday Supplement events and invited local groups to take part. The members of the Herstmonceaux Luncheon Club then went on to take part in a series of creative writing classes and one of these sessions was open to the reminiscences of the wider community.
The book is organised in broad themes of: Home Front, Evacuation, the Women's Land Army, The Frontline Memories from Abroad and VE Day and the Aftermath of War and the writing is interspersed with photographs, drawings, postcards and personal documents. Some of the contributions are only two short lines, such as 'I Never Knew My Dad' but no less affecting for their brevity.
The material included is wide ranging and full of personal detail.
. . .
I think this book will have a wide appeal. Anyone who lived through World War Two will find much to stimulate their own reminiscences and younger readers will learn a wealth of detail about the period. I think children studying WW2 will particularly relate to the child's perspective and this book could be a valuable classroom resource.
The book is organised in broad themes of: Home Front, Evacuation, the Women's Land Army, The Frontline Memories from Abroad and VE Day and the Aftermath of War and the writing is interspersed with photographs, drawings, postcards and personal documents. Some of the contributions are only two short lines, such as 'I Never Knew My Dad' but no less affecting for their brevity.
The material included is wide ranging and full of personal detail.
. . .
I think this book will have a wide appeal. Anyone who lived through World War Two will find much to stimulate their own reminiscences and younger readers will learn a wealth of detail about the period. I think children studying WW2 will particularly relate to the child's perspective and this book could be a valuable classroom resource.