Review:
My Story: Road to War by Valerie Wilding
Scholastic, 2008.
Wealthy, upper class Daphne has been brought up to believe her role in
life is to learn how to run a home. However, after the First World War
breaks out, her father is killed in action and her brother declared
missing. Daphne is determined to do her bit for the war effort, but
bored with knitting socks and rolling bandages she joins the FANYs –
the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and finds herself driving ambulances at
the front line.
Written as a war diary we are offered a dramatic contrast between
Daphne's privileged home existence and her dangerous exploits at the
front. This is a valuable record of the changing role of women in an
unstable world. Small details such as how daring it was for a girl to
cut her hair (long hair had a habit of getting oily when leaning under
ambulance bonnets) are sensitively portrayed.
However, the characterisation remains rather flat. Daphne is a
pleasant, jolly girl, but her experiences don't tug at the heart
strings and although much of her diary is written from the front line
you don't feel as though you are there with her. One saving grace is
that this book does not offer a stereotyped ending. I had a feeling
that Daphne's brother would be found alive – but at the end of the book
he is still missing, presumed dead, a poignant reminder of the millions
who lost their lives.
This book does not have the same impact as
Private Peaceful
(Michael
Morpurgo), but it does offer an insight into the changing role of women
and would be a useful addition to a topic box. The historical notes and
photographs contribute greatly to the overall picture and I was
fascinated to learn that the FANYs still exist today and worked with
the London police in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in 2005.
Claire Larson
Home
© Pledger
Consulting, 2007