N.Z. women and war

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 28

N.Z. women and war

Women in Wartime: New Zealand Women Tell Their Story. Edited by Lauris Edmond with Carolyn Milward. Government Printing Office, 1986. 278 pp. $29.95 (Reviewed by Tui Thomas.) Because women tell their own reminiscences they come alive in this book. Though similar in concept and presentation to Eve Ebbett’s collection of autobiographical stories, “When The Boys Were Away,” (1984), this later book is the more comprehensive and is better edited. But there is a place for both, as World War II recedes into history and women (men, too) become fascinated by what their own mothers, grandmothers, and great aunts did for the New Zealand war effort. Lauris Edmond felt the need to bring out a publication of this kind after the death of a woman she knew of who had lived through both wars as the wife of a notable army man. What a story she could have told! The author realised that there must be many women still alive who could

recall wartime experiences at home and abroad. She advertised her project and women from all parts of New Zealand came forward to contribute. From a woman who was a child during the First World War comes the story of her governess who was always writing letters and hiding them instead of teaching her charges. The child told her mother and governess was, eventually, exposed as a spy. Discussing the soaring birthrate of the Second World War, a woman tells of American servicemen doling out sulphanilomide tablets to their girlfriends, who believed they were some form of contraception. “The girls of course became pregnant,” she says. The stories are augmented by a thoroughly documented chronology of events of both World Wars and are well illustrated by photographs that will bring back bitter-sweet memories for many of the survivors. Lauris Edmond is a Wellington writer and poet. In 1985 her “Selected Poems” won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.