Not So Quiet...: Stepdaughters of War

I found this book to be absolutely riveting. I have always been interested in female involvement in World War I, and this book tells in a very accessible way what it was like to be in the "Forbidden Zone" during this truly horrific war. It reminds me of Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun in that we see the VAD's struggling to keep their sanity in terrible circumstances. Well worth reading.

WWI, somwhere in France, freezing, exaushted and lice ridden Britain's upper class young women are "doing their bit" for England. This is a remarkable story, telling the experience of female ambulance drivers in the first world war. The subject matter is graphic, and the language which describes it is poetic and enchanting. It sucks you in to the madness, sleeplessness, and monotany of horror that goes on everyday in Smith's life. It is an excellent read and although fiction, it is based on the diaries of an actual female ambuance driver.

In Europe during wartime, well-to-do young women were recruited to be ambulance drivers, and very few of these women knew what they were getting into. Smith takes us just behind the front lines and deep into the lives of several of these women. More a story of courage, suffering, and survival than tale of war itself, it parallels the more well-known All Quiet On the Western Front, and was intended as a response from the women's side. Unapologetically and realistically detailed, it will take you away to a time and place that you will remember long after you've finished the book.