“Reading I Came Out of France by Cecily Mackworth: story of a young woman’s escape last year when France capitulated. Written quietly, easily, it gives a vivid picture of the fantastic horrors the refugees went through. One can hardly believe it. People swarming from the north, from the south, over-running country towns and villages; no food, no medical attention, no petrol; wild rumours, contradictory orders; suspicion, mistrust, hunger, illness, death; civilians machine-gunned, press and radio under German control. One feels one had no business to be sleeping comfortably and eating well when the French nation was suffering so much.”
- Jean Lucey Pratt’s diary entry - Monday, 18 August 1941
A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt
Jean Lucey Pratt
edited by: Simon Garfield
published by: Canongate Books (2015)