Marion Houldsworth

I really enjoyed reading this book especially having lived 18 years in Townsville while our family went through school.
It was fascinating hearing the history at the time of WWII. It was easy to imagine being there and deepened my appreciation of Townsville.
It gives an intimate view of civilian life during the war, through a young girls eyes. How they faced shortages of all sorts of everyday necessities, even bread and potatoes, severe water restrictions and even having Christmas cancelled.
The narrative style was well done and it revived many of my own childhood memories.
It is also ‎sprinkled with many popular wartime songs.

Some excerpts:
ANZAC parade: Everyone wore hats and gloves; no woman would have been seen in Flinders Street without her gloves. p43
Lunch-wrappers were used for several days. In fact, lunch-wrappers were a luxury. ... String around parcels was never cut, but carefully unpicked. ... Darned stockings became a sign of thrift to help the War Effort. p72
Because so many items of food - eggs, custard powder, rice, dried fruit - were unobtainable, tapioca pudding became something that appeared more and more on the tea table. p173
Everything was in short supply: clothing, tooth-brushes, even butcher's wrapping paper. Customers were expected to take something along to wrap their purchases in. Mum had Calico squares for this which you boiled in the copper after use. p174
There was also talked that, to make a better Harbour, the Americans might dynamite Castle Hill and join Cape Pallarenda to Magnetic Island. An outrage! How dare they! Castle Hill was Townsville! p190
The Heat of Summer of 1943 approached. Water was desperately short. Vegetables and fruit with things of the past. People who had struggled to grow a bed of lettuces or trellis of beans had to keep a sharp on them or they will develop legs and walk during the night. p203
… (plus d'informations)