Edith Hoare

I was reading a book the other day & the woman in it had something called ‘the loneliness of the soul’. That is what I had when I first came to England. I can’t describe to you what it means, but that’s what I felt. A loneliness of the soul. But not any more

I hated everything German for years and years. But then our neighbour married this German woman & she was just the nicest. I actually went out to Germany to stay with them. So I stopped hating the Germans. I didn’t see any point quite honestly. It wasn’t she who was a Nazi.

I think people shouldn’t forget these awful things. Anyway, who am I to say? I just feel we’re lucky to be alive.

While I was at the second school I saw the Battle of Britain being fought up in the sky. White puffs. Aeroplanes falling. Nobody told us what was going on. But beautiful primroses everywhere.