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Millions Like Us cover art

Millions Like Us

By: Virginia Nicholson
Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson, Annie Aldington, Rachel Bavidge, Julie Maisey, Georgina Sutton
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Summary

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Virginia Nicholson's Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War. A special multi-voice recording featuring five actresses that bring to life the hundreds of personal testimonies, diary entries and books that make up this superb study. Read by Patience Tomlinson, Annie Aldington, Rachel Bavidge, Julie Maisey and Georgina Sutton.

In 1942 Cora Johnston is grieving over the death of her young husband, torpedoed in the Atlantic; Aileen Morris is intercepting Luftwaffe communications during the siege of Malta - and Clara Milburn, whose son was captured after Dunkirk, is waiting, and waiting ...

We tend to see the Second World War as a man's war, featuring Spitfire crews and brave deeds on the Normandy beaches. But in conditions of "Total War" millions of women - in the Services and on the Home Front - demonstrated that they were cleverer, more broad-minded and altogether more complex than anyone had ever guessed.

In Millions Like Us Virginia Nicholson tells the story of the women's war, through a host of individual women's experiences. She tells how they loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared; how they re-made their world in peacetime. And how they would never be the same again ...

©2011 Virginia Nicholson (P)2012 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Passionate, fascinating, profoundly sympathetic." (Artemis Cooper, Evening Standard)

"A deeply moving account of female courage both at home and overseas during the six brutal years of war...the joy of Virginia Nicholson's book is the way she has plaited scores of individual stories into a richly textured account of the many forms that female courage can take. This story belongs to us all." (Kathryn Hughes, The Mail On Sunday)

"An acclaimed account of this period... a rich seam of social history." (Cassandra Jardine, Daily Telegraph)

What listeners say about Millions Like Us

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Nigel - Leicestershire

Being a WW2/forties enthusiast for several years attending forties re- enactment events throughout each year I thought I had a reasonable knowledge of the home front and the role of women in WW2. Virginia Nicholson's book has enlightened me, to the critical part that women played in eventually delivering victory to the allies.

The audio book is particularly good as the different actresses are able to give voice to the women from all levels of society and the part they played. The book is comprehensive and well researched with good first hand accounts and details of the individuals lives. I certainly look at my Aunties with greater respect after listening to this book, as one served in the Land Army and the other as a munitions worker and it is interesting to think that the elderly people they are now were once the young women as portrayed in "Millions like us" who's individual efforts and experiences helped so much to win the war.

I recommend this book not only to anyone interested in WW2 but as a general read, as it sheds light on an interesting period of our history and the perception and expectation of the role of women in society during a time of conflict.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

HELPS THE GENARATIONS THAT HAVE COME AFTER

AS A GRANED CHILD OF THAT GENARATION. IT WAS STILL NOT TALK ABOUT WILL THEY WERE AROUND.SO IT WAS GREAT TO LISEN TO THOES HOW WERE ABLE TO GIVE THERE STORY AND BE PAST ON SO THAT WE CAN UNDER STAND WHY THEY WERE AT TIMES SAY THIS GENARATION ADD IT BETTER AND ON A PLAIT. THANK'S TO ALL.
SORRY FOR SPEELING THIS IS WHY I GET BOOKS READ

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Many things I didn't know

This is brilliant. It gives you an insight as to how women lived and coped during the war. I shall listen to this again & enjoy it as its impossible to remember it all.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Women who kept the wheels turning..........

What a great and varied number of stories from women during the war - some names you will have heard off, but the majority just everyday folk getting on with their lives, sometimes in heartbreaking circumstances. They worked hard and played hard too, war was an opportunity for some of them to learn skills and take on work they would not have been considered for in peacetime. Many inevitably found it hard to return to their lives as they had been before the war.

One small comment would be that it would have been ok to have had a male actor to voice Churchill! - you wouldnt have broken the spirit of the book!

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A thoroughly good listen.

A lesson in history I was not expecting could be so touching and so inspirational. I truly learned a lot from this book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely Fascinating

This is the second book I have listened to about women's experiences of the war. This is so much better, so many real experiences from diary entries. It is even a little too gruesome in parts! I really enjoyed the insight of the narration and that there was follow up of the stories post war. There is also an interesting analysis of the feminism issue, very revealing and surprising. If I was still teaching this would be a great resource.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Essential Reading

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

We have an involving in site into the world of the women of the UK in WW2. This is essential reading for all interested in WW2 or social history. I never thought this would have been my bag, however i have never enjoyed and appreciated a book more this this one.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Millions Like Us?

Too many to call. However Helen losing one partner after another sticks in the mind.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?

Helen Forrester takes a beating time and time again and keep coming back! Hero!!!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many

Any additional comments?

Please read/listern to this as its essential. I loved it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating details about ordinary women

Engrossing listening about a way of life that has thankfully mostly disappeared. I wanted to know more about each of these women and was sad when the book ended.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

So very interesting, learned a great deal about the plight of many different women and how they coped with the deprivations of wartime. Thoroughly recommend!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating Account

A fascinating account of what life was like for women during and after the Second World War. Thoroughly recommended.

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