Henrietta Sees It Through by Joyce Dennys

This is a sequel to Henrietta's War and covers the last three years of the the war. It was originally published serially during the war in Sketch. The book is in the form of letters written by Henrietta, a doctor's wife on the rural English coast, to a friend and neighbor who is away on the front. While she tells her friend she's sending along news of the village to give him a glimpse of something other than war, she details the effect of the war on the locals, from collecting metal for the war effort, to taking in evacuees from London, to the loss of family in combat. The author uses a dry, witty sense of humor to present the sacrifice and tragedies in a restrained way but the courage of the people comes through. The humor is distinctly British. The book gives a wonderful sense of place and people during this historical time.

At Mrs. Lippincote's by Elizabeth Taylor

Set in England during WWII, Julia and Roddy Davenant leave London and are relocated, along with their son and Roddy's sister, Eleanor, to a small town near the military base where he is posted. The novel describes each of their reactions to this new situation, focusing especially on Julia. She has a hard time settling in here, as I think she would anywhere, because she is too truthful to be very polite and "too busy, as a rule, measuring up and deploring other people to be in any way conscious of herself". This disruption of their lives destroys the fragile detente between Julia and Eleanor, and exposes the weaknesses of the marriage. I found it very difficult to care much about any of them although the ending gives much insight into Julia's state of mind. The book does give a good description of the disruption of war on home, friends and family.