Kennedy was an acclaimed novelist and playwright best-known for
The Constant Nymph
. In this autobiographical account, taken from her war diaries, she conveys the tension, frustration and bewilderment of the progression of the war, and the terror of knowing that the worst is to come, but not yet knowing what the worst will be.
English bravery, confusion, stubbornness and dark humor
provide the positive, more hopeful side of her experiences, in which she and her children move from Surrey to Cornwall, to sit out the war amidst a quietly efficient Home Guard and the most scandalous rumors.
"Most people knew in their hearts that the lid had been taken off hell, and that what had been done in Guernica would one day be done in London, Paris and Berlin." Margaret Kennedy’s prophetic words, written about the pre-war mood in Europe, give the tone of this
riveting 1941 wartime memoir: it is Mrs Miniver with the gloves off.
Where Stands A Wingèd Sentry,
the title comes from a 17th-century poem by Henry Vaughan, was only published in the USA in 1942, and was never published in the UK, until now.
"Beautifully produced." –
Shiny New Books
"Kennedy’s powers of observation and her sense of the absurd made me laugh out loud … Kennedy writes brilliantly about the way that every day life somehow continues even in times of great stress and anxiety.’ –
A Reading Life