The War and Uncle Walter

by Walter Musto (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $4.24

  The diaries of Walter Musto were recently discovered by his great nephew in an attic. Reflected here is the opinionated, happy voice of a 60-year-old suburban businessman from Surrey who found himself living through the biggest upheaval of modern times. His logbook of political and personal musings offers a charming and colourful picture of life on the home front. When Walter began his diary on 1 January 1939, he lived quietly with his ageing wife Alice and their even more elderly dog. As war broke out he took up service as an air-raid warden, and grew tomatoes for the war effort. Walter was a passionate gardener, recording regular visits to his greenhouse and keeping an eye on unfriendly frost. We learn of his predilection for sunbathing nude among his beloved flowers, and of his inconsolable pain as he lives through Alice's death. From bird-watching on the Thames to delays at Waterloo due to unexploded bombs, Walter contrasts lyrically the opposing worlds of war and peace, of personal and collective loss. His lively intellect shows he had an uncannily accurate vision of Britain's future, and contrasts with his genuine love of poetry, including his own. This warm-hearted, eccentric diary reminds us not all wars were fought on the front line.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.28

  The wartime diaries of Walter Musto were recently discovered by his great-nephew in a family attic. Contained in a dusty pile of notebooks filled with neat handwriting are the intimate thoughts of a sixty-year-old civil servant living in Surrey during the Second World War. When Walter took up his diary on January 1st 1939, he was looking forward to retirement with his beloved wife Alice Mary and their ageing dog Nell, and spending more time in his garden. Walter was too old to fight, but he organized his ARP fire-watch unit and, spurred on by the cry of 'Dig for victory!', grew mountains of vegetables for the war effort. He also took up weaving and knitting scarves for the neighbourhood, but nothing gave him more pleasure than pottering in his greenhouse or sunbathing in the nude among his flowers, interrupted only by the wailing of an air-raid siren or plain bad weather. In the spirit of THE DIARY OF A NOBODY, with more than an echo of DAD'S ARMY, Walter's idiosyncratic mix of social commentary and personal concerns captures the indomitable spirit that helped England endure the hardships of the Blitz. This charming diary is a welcome reminder that not all wars are fought on the front line.