About the Book
This is a strong narrative of the war, easy to read, mixing news with personal feelings and events (often revealing gap between official news and reality). The diary captures the authors' growing disillusionment with the war, as it gradually encroaches on her life. The diary starts with great excitement, realising its importance but expecting a short struggle, blaming treachery and incompetence initially but gets increasingly disheartened and eventually stops in 1916. Entries show growth of total war (seeing ominous Zeppelin's directly overhead, shelling etc.), experiences of her two brothers in service (their privations and her 'white-feather' feelings), personal sacrifice and patriotism, reactions to casualty lists, women entering work (she does various war work), steady collapse of domestic service (Downton angle), reflections on recognisable events such as Lusitania and on the competence of the government. Also included several poems written by Mabel and a love story in the appendix, giving a complete insight into the diarist's life. NB.Mabel and her brothers lived in Germany for some time, meaning they could all speak German and knew 'the enemy nation' as many Britons did not. AUTHOR: Mabel Goode (1870-1954) was the youngest of three. She was principally raised by her step-mother, both her parents having died before she was ten. From 1881-7 the family lived in Heidelberg, Germany, meaning she knew the people that became Britain's great enemy in her lifetime. In later life, Mabel lived quietly, as a slightly eccentric vegetarian in the Lake District and funded holidays to Italy with paintings, never marrying (although a love story exists). Mabel recognised the Great War as the most important event of her life and recorded it from 1914-16. The editor of this diary, Michael Goode, is the Great-Great Nephew of Mabel Goode. Michael read History at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge and worked on projects for the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. SELLING POINTS: . The diary captures the growing disillusionment with the war, as it gradually encroaches on life . Extremely rare in that the entire family lived in Germany for about a decade in the late nineteenth century, meaning they knew the people and country well before the war. . Shows the gulf between what the Home Front thought was happening and what we now know was happening. . Strong local interest, focus on York and Yorkshire area, records visits to Scarborough after the attacks . War from a woman's perspective, loss of servants, entering working world, rations etc. birth to total, all encompassing, war. 50 illustrations
About the Author :
Mabel Goode (1870-1954) was the youngest of three. She was principally raised by her step-mother, both her parents having died before she was ten. From 1881-7 the family lived in Heidelberg, Germany, meaning she knew the people that became Britain's great enemy in her lifetime. In later life, Mabel lived quietly, as a slightly eccentric vegetarian in the Lake District and funded holidays to Italy with paintings, never marrying (although a love story exists). Mabel recognised the Great War as the most important event of her life and recorded it from 1914-16. The editor of this diary, Michael Goode, is the Great-Great Nephew of Mabel Goode. Michael read History at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge and worked on projects for the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.
Review :
In the preface to the second volume of his World War Two diary, James Lees-Milne, arguably the greatest British diarist of his time, laid down the ground rules for diary-keeping. "A diary", he wrote, " ...is necessarily spasmodic and prosaic. But it must be spontaneous. It must not be doctored...it will be full of inconsistencies and contradictions. It reflects the author's shifting moods, tastes, prejudices and even beliefs, to few of which he remains constant for long." The First World War diary of Mabel Goode meets all these criteria and more. It offers a superb contemporary portrait of a nation coming to terms with the demands of total war. To the historian it offers fresh evidence of how life was lived on the home front during the First World War, complete with the most extraordinary rumours and misplaced optimism. Thus on the 12th September 1914, we read that "...one really does not see how the War can go on much longer. The French say it will be over Christmas. It seems quite likely." The diary also offers readers the not only the minutiae of Britain at war including the rise in food and fuel prices, but vivid accounts of the Zeppelin raids. Personally, one has only two regrets. The first, that diary stops in December 1916, with news the fall of Romania to the Central Powers and the accession of Lloyd George, ( " I don't trust LG but he has great energy& will probably get things done..."),to the premiership. The second, that Mabel's diary was not available to me when I was writing my history of the British home front, 1914-1918. Extracts from it would have undoubtedly enhanced my own account. But at least it is now available to the historian and to the general reader alike, both of whom will delight in it. And I have no doubt that it it will have an honourable place on the history.shelves alongside the diaries of Ethel Bilbrough and Georgina Lee and the works of Constance Peel and Caroline Playne in giving us such a splendidly readable picture of Britain at war a century ago." - Terry Charman, Former Senior Historian at the Imperial War Museum and author of The First World War on the Home Front
