Bomb Girls: Britain's Secret Army: the Munitions Women of World War II - Hardcover

Jacky Hyams

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9781782194422: Bomb Girls: Britain's Secret Army: the Munitions Women of World War II

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1782194428 ISBN 13: 9781782194422

Publisher: John Blake Publishing Ltd, 2013

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They were the unsung heroines of World War II; the wives, mums, and teenage girls, all 'doing their bit' for the war effort, clocking in daily to work in vast munitions factories, helping make the explosives, bullets and war machines that would ensure victory for Britain. It was dangerous, dirty and exhausting work. They worked round the clock, often exposed to toxic lethal chemicals. A factory accident could mean blindness, loss of limbs - or worse. Many went home with acid burns, yellow skin or discoloured hair. Others were forced to leave their loved one and move to live with total strangers in unfamiliar surroundings. Frequently, their male bosses were coarse and unsympathetic. Yet this hidden army of nearly two million women toiled on regardless through the worst years of the war, cheerfully ignoring the dangers and the exhaustion, as bombing , rationing an the heartbreak of loss or separation took their toll on everyone in the country. Only now, all these years later, have they chosen to tell their remarkable stories. Here, in their own words, are the vivid wartime memories of the 'secret army' of female munitions workers, whose resilience and sheer grit in the face of danger has only now started to emerge.

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About the Author:

Jacky Hyams is a freelance journalist, editor, columnist and author with over 25 years of experience in writing for mass market magazines and newspapers in the UK and Australia. A Londoner who has spent many years travelling. Jacky's feature writing career was launched in Sydney, Australia, where she wrote extensively for the Sydney Morning Herald, Sun Herald, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Good Housekeeping, New Idea, Cleo and The Australian Women's Weekly. Returning to London, Jacky spent several years as a women's magazine editor on Bella Magazine, followed by six years as a weekly columnist for the London Evening Standard. Her memoir, Bombsites and Lollipops: My 1950s East End Childhood, was published in 2011 and her follow up book, White Boots & Miniskirts, was published in 2013, both by John Blake Publishing. Jacky is also the author of The Real Life Life Downton Abbey, a brief guide to the Edwardian ear, also published by John Blake Publishing in 2011. The Female Few, a look at the Spitfire heroines of the Air Transport Auxiliary, was published by The History Press in 2012.

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