These war time diaries by Astrid Lindgren, best known in the UK as the author of the Pippi Longstocking stories, are a delight. Her personal account of what it was like to live through these tumultuous years in her native Sweden are deeply personal but show an intelligent and acute grasp of what was going on in the wider world. The charm for me was the juxtaposition of comments about the disasters and calamities going on all round the world right next to accounts of what the family had for dinner, how bad her daughter’s cough is and what the children received on birthdays and Christmases. Very well written, as you might expect from such an author, and with plenty of photos and extracts from newspapers, the diaries give a vivid and authentic account of one woman's war.

The candid diaries of a Swedish civilian mother during WWII, give a unique account of her and her families experiences. At times it appears she is numb from what she is hearing of others suffering, and her blunt account of her families suffering, due to rationing, shortages, and war restrictions imposed on her family.