Land Girls Gang Up by Pat Peters, paperback, 200 pages inc. 8 pages photographs.ISBN: 978-1-905523-95-5. IN STOCK at Old Pond Publishing, £7.95.
What was likely to happen if you took a group of feisty 17-year-old London girls and dropped them into the heart of Cornwall in the 1940s?
Dropped into Cornwall and then made to work as hard as any man, clearing stones, pulling thistles and cutting broccoli on freezing cold mornings. Not to mention the unending potato harvest.
Of course, these girls had all volunteered to join the Women's Land Army, and they knew that the drudgery was all part of the war effort. But that didn't stop them constantly looking for ways to avoid work. They hid in the corn crop plucking their eyebrows, writing letters or even darning socks.
The local farmers responded to the girls with various degrees of welcome. Some were frankly hostile.
A few of the girls rebelled and returned to city life. Most of them battled through, making the most of the local dances and the Yanks. Some, like the author, even settled down in Cornwall as a farmer's wife.
These memories are vivid, humorous and detailed and they show just what did happen to this high-spirited gang.
The Cornwall gang. Pat Peters is in the front row, second from the right.
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