Wartime poetry

Effie Roberts' poems recount the impact of war on the everyday lives of women.  Effie loses her sweetheart in WWI, marries his best friend but her poems are silenced when she loses her husband to a heart attack two years after the end of the World War II.

     A generation of women lived through the 'war to end all wars' only to experience the threat of Nazi invasion and bombardment.  Effie's poems evoke the home front: rationing, austerity, shortages, queues and recycling in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.  

     Effie's heartfelt poems include many striking images: a football dropped from a plane with a note reporting Armistice Day, the days of freedom on Sheffield trams in early 1939 and her crushing loss in 1947.  
     A picture emerges of a seamstress who sought the best for her family, loved sunny days and desperately missed the foods and holidays that she loved. 

A Wartime Poetry Journal.

Read Effie's poems here:

Effie's poems

Buy the book