Sarah Baring wrote her autobiography documenting her experiences in WWII. # The Road to Station X: From Debutante Ball to Fighter-Plane Factory to Bletchley Park, a Memoir of One Woman’s Journey Through World War Two was published in 2020. It is the 90th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! I categorize this book as G.

Sarah Norton Baring was 17 years old in 1937 when she was sent to Munich by her parents to learn German. By age 18, she was working as a journalist. By the time the war had started, she was back in the UK. She lived through the phone war and through the Blitz.

She joined the war effort by working in an aircraft factory. From there, she was recruited to Bletchley Park. The book covers the period in her life from age 17 until the end of the war.

I enjoyed the 3.5 hours spent reading this 191-page WWII history and memoir. This is a very readable history of WWII. While the cover art is simple and monochrome, it represents the book. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

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This is another Bletchley Park experience but this time by a debutante. Like all books about this place it has its interesting bits and others you just want to skim over. It doesn’t go into anything much in great detail and lots of it was about the events during the war. A super quick read for anyone wanting a taster of this topic or for those who don’t have the time or inclination for a huge tome. It would have been nice if there had been another chapter informing the reader of what the author did afterwards.

The narrative was detailed and told in chronological order. Reading about the author's experiences was fascinating, fun, enjoyable, and I couldn't put it down. Hers is a refreshing perspective to some of the other books about the war. I feel as though I got to know her as she described her adventures.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own honest opinions and recorded voluntarily.

Sarah Baring's life certainly didn't go in the way she thought it would from her childhood. As a distant relative to the royal family and debutante, she was expected to live a life of parties and going out to dance all night. She had spent time in Germany before World War II and was relatively fluent in the language.  As war broke out, Baring saw first hand bombs dropping in her beloved London, often having to step through the rubble on her way home. She could not stand by. Along with a friend, she left a position at UK's branch of Vogue magazine and signed up as a telephonist in an Air Raid Precautions Center and worked in the harsh conditions of a fighter plane factory, building planes that would be flown in England's fight against Germany.  Soon Baring was witnessing a whole new world from the women and men around her. Soon, her language skills helped lead her to the very secret Bletchley Park, and the code-breaking work that she had to keep secret for many years. 


Not only is Sarah Baring a badass, her writing is fun to read. The Road to Station X is a fascinating look at how women lived before and during World War II, as well as the very hard work that went into building planes and cracking codes. She is funny and direct, talking about her feelings and the amazing friends she made working side by side with people she may never have come into contact with before the war.   

The Road to Station X is now available from Sapere Books. It is definitely worth a read for those interested in how women impacted the war effort.

‘When I was seventeen my parents sent me to Munich in Germany for further education and to learn the language.’

Little did Sarah Baring then know how important her knowledge of German would become. Sarah Kathleen Elinor Baring (20 January 1920 – 4 February 2013) was an English socialite who worked for three years as a linguist at Bletchley Park, the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. In 1938, she was enjoying her life as a debutante. But when war broke out in 1939, she wanted to do her bit for the war effort. First, after leaving a position with Vogue, she worked as a telephonist at an Air Raid Precautions Centre, then she worked in a factory and helped build airplanes. But then, because Intelligence were seeking German-speaking staff, Sarah, and her friend Osla were tested and then selected for employment at Bletchley Park.

‘You are to report to Station X at Bletchley Park.’

In this book, Sarah Baring provides a firsthand account of life in the UK during World War II. While I was most interested in her account of working at Bletchley Park, the book is made more interesting by the context she provides. Food rationing and accommodation shortages presented challenges, but Ms Baring mentions this as a matter of fact and as something that applied to all.

I have been reading a lot about World War II recently, and Ms Baring’s firsthand account provided a different and interesting perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a well-written personal account of life in the UK during World War II.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Sapere Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

What an honour to read this beautiful true account of a British heroine in her own right, Sarah Baring. entirely captivating and enthralling! Reading experiences like this is what learning is all about. This book is such a joy.

Little did Sarah Baring know when she was 17 and lived temporarily in Germany that learning the language would pay dividends in her future. She grew up in a privileged aristocratic home and at 18 was a debutante with silk dresses and gloves but life changed dramatically in 1939 with the threat of war. Suddenly the upper echelon became less important and she found a job in a factory where she became, of all things, a mechanic and helped build airplanes. It was physically demanding work and she wished for something more mentally stimulating. She and her close friend, Osla, worked their way up through the ranks to become code breakers and linguists at Bletchley Park.

Along the way with job placements and promotions came moving and living in different locations which were not exactly palatial. Food rationing began with the war and Sarah, who had feasted on the very best was now saving bits of soap and treasuring fresh food of any kind. She was now able to have only 4 oz of butter a week, for example, so was thrilled to receive food parcels from America which included butter. She was only allowed four gallons of petrol per month. However, the tone of the book was not complaining or whining but matter of fact, definitely not fully of self pity.

Sarah's writing is personal, easy flowing and descriptive. From what I read here it seems she would have been a fascinating person to know. Her historical details are incredible. She wrote about the war with personal hardships, depression and illness but also mention beautiful and fun moments. Her knowledge about airplanes is breathtaking! Code-breaking descriptions are utterly enthralling and something I've wondered about. The Enigma machine was entirely unknown to me...happily, that's changed. I like that she mentioned the cost of things and her salary, too. Plus throughout the book Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels are discussed with their perverse hatred of the Jews which she found abhorrent.

I feel as though I've just had an underground conversation with someone special. Do reach for this wonderful historical true story of one woman's fight in WWII if you are at all interested in the era or code breaking. But it's more than that, too.

My sincere thank you to Sapere Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this remarkable book in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated.

A fascinating memoir of a woman that chose to support England by becoming engaged in crucial wartime activities such as military factory work and code breaking. A courageous and fascinating woman stands at the centre of this story.