Averin’s War: Letters home from Oxford and London 1940-1944

A vivid picture of life in Oxford and London during World War II: the rationing, the shortages of food, drink, clothes and other necessities, the air-raid warnings, the nights spent in shelters, the voluntary war work, teaching schoolboys to drive tractors, air-raid warden training, but also the everyday life of a normal university student, enthusiastically juggling the essential business of getting a degree with sport, socialising and generally having fun.

In October 1940, 19-year-old Averin Macalister went up to Somerville College in Oxford to read French and Spanish. In 1941 she met Geoffrey Hinton, who was working for the Ministry of Information and would soon join Section V, the counterintelligence branch of MI6. They were married in 1942, and Geoffrey was immediately posted to Cairo. Averin took her degree in 1943 and was herself recruited to work for Section V in London.

Averin’s War is a collection of the letters Averin wrote to her mother from 1940 to 1944. The letters also hint at Averin’s and Geoffrey’s work for MI6, but this is incidental: Averin’s focus is always on family, friendships and relationships.