Women at the Ready, Robert Malcolmson
Women at the Ready, Robert Malcolmson
List: $21.99 | Sale: $15.39
Club: $10.99

Women at the Ready
The Remarkable Story of the Women's Voluntary Services on the Home Front

Author: Robert Malcolmson, Patricia Malcolmson

Narrator: Patience Tomlinson

Unabridged: 11 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/22/2013

Categories: Nonfiction, History


Synopsis

From the summer of 1938, British women from all walks of life joined the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS). This disparate band of women came together for the common good - to help serve and protect their communities. By 1941 a million women had enrolled.

These brave and dutiful women played a vital role in Britain's victory. The positive impact of the WVS on wartime society was universally acknowledged. They were instrumental in implementing the large-scale evacuation of children from bomb-targeted cities, in the care of the wounded, and in keeping those in war service fed. Lady Reading, founder and fearless leader, was one of the most influential women in twentieth-century Britain.

The story of the WVS has never been fully told before. Social historians Patricia and Robert Malcolmson bring this vital part of the Second World War to life in a vivid and engaging way through the diaries and records of the women serving their country on the Home Front. Women at the Ready promises to be a magnificent saga of sacrifice and determination.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on October 05, 2015

Interesting subject, badly edited.......more

Goodreads review by Shreedevi on November 19, 2022

The Royal Voluntary Service is an organisation concerned with helping the needy throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was founded by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading as the Women's Voluntary Service in 1938 to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services to......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on August 26, 2022

I enjoyed this very much on Audible. I am glad I listened to this one, as I'm not sure I would have managed to complete the novel because there were parts of the work that were slow and not really anything much happening, but the Audible was very easy to listen to whilst I lay in bed or did things a......more

Goodreads review by Penny on December 02, 2013

Interesting but very repetitive history of the WVS (later known as the WRVS). I'd only really associated them with mobile canteens on railway stations serving tea and buns to passing soldiers. I now realise my ignorance, and what a huge part they played, especially during WW2. At one stay one in thir......more


Quotes

You finish this book full of admiration for the way in which, long before anyone coined the word "sisterhood", British women were able to set aside differences of class, region and religion to pull together for the greater good. The Mail on Sunday

Their "heroic" work, suggest the authors in this fascinating study . . . [was] an advertisement for what voluntary action, backed by government, could do. The Scotsman

A good read. Get ready to be inspired by courageous tales from the women who helped us to victory in WWII. Yours magazine

Patricia and Robert Malcolmson bring this vital part of the history of the Second World War to life through the diaries and records of the women serving their country on the Home Front Britain at War

A detailed, vivid account of an inspirational force for good Daily Mail