My
grateful thanks to Dorothy Claire who brought this to my attention.
“War Girls” is an anthology of poetry and prose in CD
or MP3 form, put together and read by Ruth Sillers from poetry and prose
written by women who lived through the First World War. My Mother was four years old
when war broke out and she had vivid memories about which she spoke often, so I
am extremely interested in anything to do with WW1.
Ruth Sillers has worked for the National Youth
Theatre, The Royal National Theatre Studio, Donmar Warehouse and the BBC. Ruth’s soothing voice brings us
an insight into the role of women during the First World War, from the outbreak
until the Armistice. Ruth reads a selection of poetry from works featured in Catherine Reilly’s “Scars upon my Heart” and prose from Joyce
Marlow’s “Women and the Great War”, among them, Violet Thurston, Katharine
Tynan, Helena Swanwick, Helen Hamilton, Anna Gordon Keown, Sarah Macnaughton,
Charlotte Mew, Katherine Mansfield, Nora Griffiths, Jessie Pope, E. Sylvia
Pankhurst, Madeline Ida Bedford, Olive May Taylor, Edith Sitwell, Maude Onions,
Winifred M. Letts, Helen Dircks, M. Winifred Wedgwood, Eva Dobell, Teresa
Hooley, Aelfrida Tillyard, Eleanour Norton, Nancy Cunard, Lilian Baylis, Eileen
Newton, May Wedderburn Cannan, Carola Oman, Virginia Woolf, Marjorie Wilson and
Sara Teasdale.
Skilfully interwoven with a musical accompaniment
featuring some of the well-known WW1 airs such as “If you were the only girl in
the world”, “Oh Oh, Antonio”, “After the Ball”, the “Rose of No Man’s Land”,
“Keep the Home Fires Burning”, “Roses of Picardy”, “Till we meet again” and
featuring “The Last Post”, Ruth brings us a delightful reminder of the debt we owe to
the women whose contribution to the First World War has, until now, been largely overlooked. I found this CD extremely inspirational.
“War Girls” is available as a download or a CD from
Crimson Cats Audio Books – www.crimsoncats.co.uk; e-mail: editor@crimsoncats.co.uk You can also find Crimson Cats on Facebook:
