Frances Donaldson - Rose Deakin

Laugh and cry with a young woman in World War II, as she takes on misogynistic men at farming. Can she succeed? 

With her soldier husband, Jack, fighting the war, with 2 young children to care for, she bought a farm in Warwickshire and determined to live off it. Could an emotionally fragile young mother survive the ordeal?

During 6 long years of war she learned to farm, battling with the antagonism of the men she was trying to manage, vulnerable to the demands of the Ministry of Agriculture while coping with small children and no money. War was a test of relationships, character and endurance.

A Woman’s War tells how she conquered WWII. A motivational tale from riches to rags, from joy to sorrow, and, at the end of the war together again with Jack, rejoicing. The journey is illustrated with letters and contemporary photographs. Read this inspiring book and share her trials today.

Frances Donaldson would not have called herself a feminist, but her strong aspirational character,  independence and determination make this almost a feminist tract, showing in detail how much a woman can achieve in difficult circumstances. She not only showed determination but took on physical tasks which most modern men would find difficult if not impossible. She overcame the opposition of the members of the man's world in which she found herself and rose to top the ranks of farmers in the war, to be invited to broadcast to Britain and America and to write 2 books about it - working at night after a full day's hard activity on the farm. Her letters to her husband Jack are sometimes tearful, often sad but in the end the letters of a fighter, a perfectionist and an inspiring achiever.