Kitty’s War, by Janet Butler #BookReview

Somewhere in the archives of the War Memorial in Canberra, there is a small diary scribbled in pencil.  It was donated by The Spouse’s family because old Eric was a gunner in the 7th Field Artillery Brigade and he was awarded the Military Medal in The Great War.  Before he lost his leg in the conflict he recorded his impressions of the first tanks to arrive on the battlefield so it’s a most interesting document.  Transcribing this diary is an eventual retirement project for The Spouse.

We had always thought that this would be a fairly straightforward task, but now that I have read Kitty’s War by Janet Butler, I realise that there is much more to a war diary than first meets the eye.  What’s not in a war diary can be just as interesting as what’s in it… and what’s in it, is sometimes not much about war at all…