ROCKPORT, Mass., Sept. 4, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Over the years Americans have said to author Mary Wittkower, "How did the British people manage to continue on with their lives during the air raids? We could not have done it." She reveals her answer in her fascinating book, An Extraordinary Time: Memories of a Young Girl Growing up in WW II. First as a schoolgirl and later a navy wrens using primitive computers to decode secret German messages.
For Wittkower, her life from the age of twelve to nineteen was taken up with the war. There were many things she wished had never happened, but as far as she was concerned, she never felt regretful having spent those teenage years the way that she did. She recalls memories of growing up during WW II, the gory stories, and the ability to enjoy humor in serious situations -- something that kept people from falling apart. At that time, there were no televisions to bombard them with news on the hour every hour, but raids went on daily. Thus, the author and her family would engage in activities that would take their mind off the war for a few hours. Despite the destruction that WW II wrought, people go back over and over again and rebuild. Character and bravery knows no nationality and the Americans could have withstood the blitz as well as anyone else.
Surviving An Extraordinary Time during WW II taught Wittkower discipline, humility, that life is fragile, and that there is no such thing as security. Just to be able to sleep all night in a bed without fear is something that the author still thinks about today. In those days, there were quite a few larger-than-life characters, people who stood out as quite extraordinary -- Churchill, De Gaulle, and Eisenhower to name a few, and thousands of unknowns who did extraordinary things.
An Extraordinary Time paints a realistic picture of how life went on during WW II. It portrays how ordinary people coped with the pressures and those who didn't and the extraordinary people who encouraged others to never lose hope in the face of devastation. To get a copy of this compelling read, you may purchase a copy at your local book retailer or online at Xlibris.com today.
About the Author
Mary Wittkower was born and brought up in London, England and came to the United States in 1959. She is a painter by profession and exhibits her work in New York City and has sold works to corporations and private collectors world wide. She received her B.F.A. at Monserrat College of Art, Massachusetts and has written articles for several art magazines, including Artis Spectrum. She has two children and two grandchildren and lives with her husband in Rockport, Mass.
An Extraordinary Time * by Mary Wittkower
Memories of a Young Girl Growing up in WW II
Publication Date: March 18, 2004
Trade Paperback; $17.84; 141 pages; 978-1-4134-3216-9
Cloth Hardback; $27.89; 141 pages; 978-1-4134-3217-6
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