This month, three lucky readers have the chance to win two books each, courtesy of The History Press.
The female contribution to both world wars is fairly well known. Stepping into the roles left by men who had gone o ff to fight, wives and daughters helped the war e ffort at home by working in factories and looking a fter wounded soldiers returned from the front.
Some women, however, served closer to the action. Penny Starns’ Sisters of the Somme is based on previously unpublished stories from First World War nurses who tended to wounded soldiers in a field hospital on the Somme. These young women saw dreadful scenes of slaughter on the Western Front, and, far from home, banded together to support themselves and their patients through the con flict.
Jacky Hyams’ The Female Few introduces readers to five brave women who flew aircraft including Spit fires and Lancaster bombers during the Second World War, risking their lives as aerial courier pilots. These women flew unarmed, without radios, and, in some cases, without instruments, leaving them vulnerable to bad weather and enemy fire.
Both titles bring their subjects to life for 21st-century readers.
Competition closed.