View source for Slideshow: Memories of a Wartime Childhood by Marjorie Ann Watts

{{infobox1
|title=Slideshow: Memories of a Wartime Childhood
|author=Marjorie Ann Watts
|reviewer=Louise Jones
|genre=History
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=0704373599
|pages=200
|publisher=Quartet Books
|date=September 2014
|summary=A view of life in Britain during the Second World War, as seen through the eyes of a child.
|cover=0704373599
|aznuk=0704373599
|aznus=0704373599
}}
''Slideshow'' may seem an unusual title for a book about growing up during the Second World War, but author Marjorie Ann Watts is quick to explain why it was chosen. Her job as a book illustrator and artist requires astute observation skills and she has what might be known as a 'photographic memory', or a gift for recalling specific scenes from her past in great detail. She explains it this way:

''All I have to do is pull a 'slide' from the accumulated silt of memory...there it is: a varnish-clear image as vivid as the day it was recorded, however long ago.''

Along with the general image, Watts notices the tiny details associated with it, along with accompanying sounds, conversations, sights, textures and smells. She can also recall specific feelings and emotions that accompany each scene, resulting in a fascinating insight into the life of a child during the war years. The book starts with some of Watts' earliest memories of her nursery and nanny, which she narrates in a childlike voice. As the years pass and the war rages in the background, her tone matures almost imperceptibly and the book ends with Watts as a young adult, full of life and keen to see what the world has in store for her now that the war has ended.

Even though the events depicted in the book are within living memory, the depictions of British life seem a world away. Watts lost her father at an early age, leaving her mother alone to care for three young children. With no benefits system as we know it today, her mother was forced to go out to work, often leaving the children to roam free and run wild. And oh, what freedom! She describes taking a detour on the way home from school to take a swim in the sea at night, completely without fear. She recalls the time when she and her brother navigated cross country on their bikes from Plymouth all the way to their new house in Hertfordshire because there wasn’t room in the car. The four-day journey involved several transfers by train and nights spent in empty cottages, but the children didn't complain because there was simply no other choice.

The book runs the whole gamut of emotions and can be light-hearted in places as well as deeply emotional in others. A scene in which the author cradles a dying child in the aftermath of a bombing is particularly memorable.

My only criticism of the book is that I found it hard to warm to the author as a narrator. She seemed to be the type of person who would not suffer fools gladly and this is reflected in her harsh and demeaning comments about others. A precocious child grows into a mischievous schoolgirl and a rebellious teenager. Throughout the book, Watts finds herself at loggerheads with others; particularly her mother and schoolteachers. Readers need to be able to 'root-for' the main protagonist, which was difficult in this instance.

Despite this, there is no doubt that ''Slideshow'' is a unique and valuable history book because it examines how people at the time really felt about their situation. The people involved are not just historical figures playing a part in a drama, but real individuals with feelings like us. The book offers a captivating glimpse into a window that is slowly closing with the passing of each generation.

For more nostalgic tales of wartime childhood, we recommend the wonderful [[The Girl on the Wall: One Life's Rich Tapestry by Jean Baggott]].

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