WHITTINGTON PRESS. MORGAN, Gwenda. ~ The Diary of a Land Girl, 1939-1945.
No. 1960 of 300 copies. 31 original wood engravings by Gwenda Morgan. Set in Fournier type and printed on Zerkall mould made paper. Sm. folio, original green half cloth, green paper sides with engraving by Morgan reproduced in green, printed paper label on spine, housed in the original green cloth and paper slipcase. A very good, fresh copy.
Gwenda Morgan was born in 1908 in Petworth in West Sussex. This diary, illustrated with her own excellent wood engravings, is a remarkable and detailed account of her life as a land-girl throughout the Second World War in her community. She details every day, even Sundays, her one day off. This is actually very powerful as it gives a flavour of how hard and repetitive the long hours were on the land. One very charming device is her repeated rhythmic naming of the cows which she milked, eg: “BIG SHED: Rose, Cherry I, Cherry II, Minnie, Fairy, Tiny, Polly, Dolly. MIDDLE SHED: Queenie, Darkie, Darby, Joan, Buttercup, Dimple, Merton. SMALL SHED: Lily.”