Few Eggs and No Oranges

I am almost finished with a   huge beast of a book that has been a delightful read--about difficult days.

Few Eggs and No Oranges: The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45 published by Persephone Books 1999.  It is a riveting book of 590 pages of the World War II wartime diary written by Hodgson while she lived and worked in London helping to run a local charity in Notting Hill Gate.  The book covers the war from the perspective of a 30-ish year old woman and what life was like during the blitz.  Her sense of humor is amazing as she goes about helping people in difficult circumstances while trying to live day to day during a very dark time for Britain.

But she never loses her appreciation for flowers, flowering trees, a good cup of tea, well made marmalade and a soft bed when the falling bombs and sirens and blackouts make that impossible.  This is not a bogged down kind of read.  She gives opinions on Churchill, FDR, Stalin, and reports on the war doings throughout those five years.

So imagine my surprise--while digging inthe garage getting things ready for our next antique show--that I found an old newspaper in the bottom of a tea caddy--a page dated Monday August 7, 1944 of Le Petit Parisien.  A french newspaper from the very time period that I am reading about in Vere''s book.

But as I slog along with my most often forgotten college french,  I realize that this paper was an organ of the Vichy government in France and filled with anti American and British articles.    Propaganda never had such a Capital P as this fragment of paper,  including a photo of Devil H himself visiting soldiers in a hospital.  This is an incredible tie in to Vere's diaries.

The Blitz that London endured -- almost non stop warnings bombs doodlebugs fires for 57 straight days in 1940 -is usually a mere mention in our history lessons.  Vere's book really makes me understand the character of the British people.

Not sure why that newspaper was in an English tea caddy.