By Jerome de Groot
In 1939 Christian Lamb is torn back to England from a comfortable sojourn in France and decides that she must do her bit. Joining the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) mainly on the basis of the tricorne hat (only worn by officers, as she discovers too late), Lamb is plunged into a world of utility and esprit de corps, of radar and parties in submarines. Part-memoir and part-social history of the part that the Wrens played in the war effort, the book mixes Lamb's own stories with accounts of others' experiences. Lamb is jolly and enthusiastic company; words such as "splendidly" and "heavenly" pepper the text. The stories reveal the extent of women's involvement in the war (particularly on active duty or espionage), and are as a consequence a valuable reminder of the social complexity of the 1940s.