Prompt – A book by or about a journalist.
Medium – Book
About the book – Kate Adie is an award-winning journalist, who was Chief News Correspondent for the BBC and has reported from war zones across the world. In this book, she looks at the progress made by women in uniform primarily in the twentieth century, but also earlier than this. She examines the different roles women have played in war, from ‘camp followers’ who were stereotyped as prostitutes, to nurses (such as Florence Nightingale), to WW1/WW2 women in the uniformed services and finally in today’s military. The book is mostly a historical ‘text’ but also acts in a semi-autobiographical fashion, talking about Adie’s life as a war correspondent and how she dealt with being often the only woman in a group of uniformed men.
My Rating – 8/10. This book was a present from my husband and when shown to my mother was met with the observation, ‘yes, that’s just Jenny’s sort of thing’. I really enjoy historical books (I did history at uni so it has always been an interest), especially those with a focus on women and their role in traditionally male-orientated areas. Adie writes brilliantly, and the book is funny and thought-provoking. It’s the sort of book you can’t just pick up and read – you need to have a clear head and be able to give yourself over to it completely, which is why it took quite a long time to read!
I really enjoyed learning about women’s involvement in the world wars – particularly the second world war. Whilst I have read about women on the home front in the second world war, it was nice to read about the women who worked in uniform within the armed services, as well as those working in the land army and in factories. I also don’t really know much about women in today’s armed services, so the short chapters towards the end of the book talking more about the practicalities of serving as a woman were fascinating. Also – after reading the book, I looked more at the life and work of Kate Adie – she is pretty amazing!
Would I read it again? Probably – it is back on my bookcase! I would like to read it at a time when I have less other stuff going through my head to take it in a little more!
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