A Review By Frances Smith
When we were young girls, my sister and I used to listen, entranced, to our grandfather’s tales of his childhood and early working life. Now, as mature ladies, we wish we had listened more carefully and written some otf these stories down. How many families have similar vague memories of Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts telling such stories? Sadly as that generation pass away, the stories usually die with them. Not so the family of 94 year old Sonia Tudor. Her daughter has recorded hours of stories and the result is this wonderful little book, “Making the Most of It”.
The book opens with a childhood that could have come straight from the pen of Angela Brazil. The children of an unhappy marriage, Sonia and her brother, Guy, were sent away from home at an early age to begin their education, sometimes at Boarding Schools and sometimes with a private tutor as companions to the daughter of wealthy friends. In today’s world, Social Services would quickly become closeley involved, but this rather chaotic start made Sonia and Guy resilient and self-reliant. Here was sewn the seed of the attitude that runs through the whole book and is echoed in the title, “Making the Most of it” – a zest for life and happy acceptance that sometimes brickbats come your way.
After leaving behind midnight feasts and clandestine meetings with boys, Sonia joined the WAAF and started on an exciting and distinguished carreer.
Written in a deceptively simple and straightforward style, sonia’s voice leaps from the pages with dry humour and wit, which serves only to add pathos to some of her understated phrases. When talking of her time at Martlesham RAF station, she refers to RAF squadrons being consantly on the move. “It seemed we only had enough time to get to know and like someone, before either they, or we, were whisked away, usually forever.” She does not need to add that many of those young airmen in training were never to return from their missions at all.
Sonia became a Code and Cypher Officer and was to have many war-time adventures and experiences while she travelled abroad to Egypt, Italy and Algeria. We have already sold lots of copies and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Marvelous!
