Thank God I’m Not a Boy

Whereas Jack Oughtred burned his lover’s letters lest they fall into the wrong hands, his fellow officer Cecil Slack kept every one he received from his sweetheart, Dora Willatt. In fact, hers comprise the bulk of this book, and consequently offer a very different view of the war - from the point of view of those left at home. Dora wanted to serve, and managed, finally, to work as a nurse.

In Thank God I’m Not A Boy, among the most vivid episodes she describes is meeting survivors of battle in the streets of Hull to be told that her beloved was last seen in a shell-hole facing the German advance in the spring of 1918. It is several weeks later that she learns he is a P.O.W. These letters make a fascinating, deeply moving book and are - in the opinion of the late Leo Cooper - “almost unique”.