Wartime country diaries

Twice in the 20th century, the world was engulfed by warfare whose battles and effects on society have been much-chronicled. This is the less familiar story of how struggles between the great European powers reached into the quietest corners of the British countryside. From jam-making to Italian prisoners of war, among the many subjects covered, diarists discuss the effect of Battle of Britain planes on hawks and waterfowl. As Arnold Boyd writes in September 1939, 'I cannot help thinking that if only Hitler had been an ornithologist, he would have put off the war until the autumn bird migration was over'.