Regular readers will know how much Peter, your departing editor, loves his books and history. Consequently, we’re indebted to Alan Mackley for emailing news about his latest venture. Alan, from Blythburgh in Suffolk, worked at BP from 1957 to 1984, starting at the Kent Refinery and ending his days in the International Marketing Department.
Alan writes: ‘As I start my 100th decade, I continue to research, write and publish history. My latest venture is to self-publish a Second World War diary, kept from 1942 to 1944, by a 40-year-old Suffolk woman, Janet Becker. With her career as a cleaner and restorer of church monuments interrupted by the war (she had also published works of history, novels and poetry), Janet attached a trailer to her bicycle – her ‘Shop on Wheels’ – and rode from her East Suffolk home in Wangford with goods to sell to the men of an anti-aircraft searchlight battery in Henham Park, a location now known for the Latitude Festival.’
Janet’s diary describes the support she gave to the troops – from selling freshly made buns to razor blades, Mars Bars and Brylcream. She also provides a revealing insight into the non-military life of the troops, and includes accounts of gardening competitions, demonstrations of lino-block printing (she was the daughter of artists), and even a lecture in the barrack hut with the sergeant’s bedsheet as a screen! Inevitably, the reality of war is never far away, and she records the falling in Henham Park of two American planes loaded with bombs that exploded with great loss of life.
Alan has done a great job of editing the diary and has added a map, together with many useful notes to help the reader understand some of the wartime terms. He has been fortunate to have a fine cover and title designed by Jeff Fisher, a near neighbour, who is an internationally renowned graphic artist, with jackets to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and the Inspector Montalbano series to his credit.
If you would like your own copy of the 40-page book, Alan has kept the cost down to £5 with the help of grants from local organisations plus £2 p&p. Please email your order with name and address to bburghbooks@btinternet.com for details of payment by bank transfer. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, and a leukaemia charity.