Thanks to whoever left this on the shelf.

Now available on the Official BookCrossing Zone bookshelf in The Glencorse Centre, 4 Firth Road, Auchendinny, Midlothian, EH26 0QZ

The OBCZ is in a bookcase in the cafe area and is clearly labelled.

If you have picked up this book, thank you for visiting the website (and the centre!). Please take a moment to let us know you have the book, then post your review when you've read it, and pass it on to someone else. If you join, you'll be able to see what's happened to it afterwards - for ever!

Welcome to BookCrossing!

Thank you for picking up this book. If you’re new to BookCrossing and find this book and this site (www.bookcrossing.com), please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free). If you join, you’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry for this specific copy of this book (other copies of the book are travelling with their own ID number. Every copy of every book has a unique ID).

I hope you'll join BookCrossing (doesn't cost anything to join!) and if you do, please consider using me, Cassandra2020, as your referring member. When you’ve finished reading this book and are ready to send it on its way again, make a journal entry then a release note: either 'controlled' if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or a 'wild' release if you are leaving it somewhere hoping for anyone to catch.

Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e mail each time someone makes another journal entry. It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address) and spam-free.

Enjoy the site, the book and hopefully the BookCrossing community. If you’re already a BookCrossing member, thank you for picking up this book.

Happy BookCrossing!

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain - Very Good

Ah, now we are into November and a different theme: Remembrance!

This is a block buster of a memoir: 600 pages of Vera Brittain's life from her girlhood in Buxton through to her marriage in 1925. That it was written in 1933 has to be understood and recognised - there is no knowledge of the war to come other than the knowledge of what is taking place in Europe and the fear of where it may lead. Instead you get a first hand account of what it was like to be an ambitious and intelligent girl/woman in a provincial town who wants an education, makes it to Oxford only to have The Great War interrupt her generation's lives. She enlists as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse) and her experiences are raw and real.

I don't think I give anything away when I say that she loses everyone that she loves and has to try and rebuild her life, post war, without them. That we know she will succeed is something she didn't when she wrote the majority of the book.

I've read a number of books about this period in time, some fact, some fiction and each of them has taught me something I hadn't known or realised. The big realisation that this pointed out for me, was the difficulties of those that survived. When Vera returned to Oxford to recommence her studies post-war, her contemporaries were, almost exclusively, young girls, straight out of school, with none of her experiences. Vera found herself isolated and alone in a crowd with her bereavements and her memories of nursing in the most horrendous circumstances. How she found the strength to continue and to succeed is impressive but it made me think about how many others must have had similar experiences and struggles. I always knew that the returning soldiers were changed men, with all that they experienced locked up inside them. I guess I thought the nurses were the same. I just didn't think about what they returned to. That, like Vera, they might return to pick up where they left off but find that their contemporaries were all gone and they were surrounded by people that didn't understand at all.

Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.

If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!

Retrieved from lfl

Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.

If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!

Retrieved from LFL

Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.

If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!

Received from Glencorse Centre