Joyce Dennys (1893–1991)
Author of Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front, 1939-1942
About the Author
Series
Works by Joyce Dennys
The Over-Dose 1 copy
Our Hospital ABC 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Dennys, Joyce
- Birthdate
- 1893-08-18
- Date of death
- 1991-02-23
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Exeter Art School
- Occupations
- artist
author
painter
illustrator
playwright - Organizations
- Voluntary Aid Detachment
- Short biography
- Joyce Dennys was born in India to a military family during the British Raj. When her father retired, they went "home" to Devon in England. As a young woman, she enrolled at Exeter Art School and also studied art in London. During World War I, she served as a VAD (Volunteer Aid Detachment) nurse. In 1915, she was commissioned to illustrate the book Our Hospital ABC with verses by Hampden Gordon and M.C. Tindall, published the following year. She also produced recruitment posters for the British War Office. In 1919, she married Tom Evans, a physician, and moved with him to New South Wales, Australia. Her drawings were exhibited in many galleries there. In 1922, the family moved back to England, settling in Budleigh Salterton. She took part in the town's amateur theatricals as an actress and playwright and continued to produce illustrations for magazines such as Punch and Sketch. At the beginning of World War II, she created the character of "Henrietta" for an article for Sketch, which took the form of a humorous letter from Henrietta to a friend serving in the army. It was such a success that she was asked to continue to write letters as a regular feature in Sketch for several years. The articles were later collected in the book Henrietta's War (1985), and a followup volume was called Henrietta Sees It Through (1986).
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Simla, India
- Places of residence
- India (birth)
New South Wales, Australia
Devon, England, UK
Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England, UK
Members
Reviews
Henrietta Sees It Through is the second collection of columns written by Joyce Dennys during World War II for the magazine Sketch where they appeared, along with her wonderful illustrations, throughout the war. Like the first volume, Henreitta's War, the collections were originally published in book form in the 1980's by Andre Deutch and are now being reissued by Bloomsbury in attractive paperback editions. Each column is in the form of a letter, written by Dennys' alter ego, Henrietta, to show more her childhood friend Robert who is off fighting on one front or another. Henrietta and her doctor husband Charles live in an unnamed seaside village in Devonshire and, despite the constant threat of bombs, rockets and invasion, somehow manage to shop, garden, attend dog shows, take in kittens and evacuees with equal aplomb and mix with a cast of characters who would feel right at home in an episode of The Vicar of Dibley. This is English comic writing of the highest order, on a par with Wodehouse or the best of Jerome K. Jerome. Henrietta, or, rather, Dennys made me laugh out loud at least once per column and, had that been all she set out to do the books would still be worth reading. But Dennys had so much more on her mind and the brilliance of these books is that, in between the many moments of mirth, she makes us look long and hard at the cost of war, it's effect on those far from the front lines, how problems of gender and class may mutate during a war but certainly never go away. One gets a real sense of how exhausting it must have been to "keep calm and carry on," to maintain that famous stiff upper lip even while it was trembling.
I'm enormously grateful to Library Thing and to Bloomsbury for getting the second book into my hands. I've already ordered a copy of the first one to join it in a place of honor on my shelves. If I could afford it, I'd buy both of these books in bulk and press copies of them into the hands of everyone I know and care about. show less
I'm enormously grateful to Library Thing and to Bloomsbury for getting the second book into my hands. I've already ordered a copy of the first one to join it in a place of honor on my shelves. If I could afford it, I'd buy both of these books in bulk and press copies of them into the hands of everyone I know and care about. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.This is one of the most charming books I've read in a very long time. Henrietta, writing to her friend Robert, details the ins and outs of home life during the last few years of WWII. I wasn't sure that I would necessarily like this book, but after I had read a dozen pages and laughed at least that many times, I knew that the rest of it was going to be fantastic. Filled with wonderful wit and pitch-perfect illustrations by the author, Henrietta & friends are a pure delight. I'm so glad that show more I have the first book, [Henrietta's War], on my shelf already. Do yourself a favor - drop all of your "okay" books, and pick this one up instead. I don't see how you could go wrong! show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The book is an epistolary novel (drool!) composed of letters from the titular Henrietta, a doctor’s wife in a Devonshire village, to her childhood friend Robert, who has gone off to war. These letters, along with Dennys’s illustrations, which also appear in the book, were first published as a regular feature in Sketch magazine during the war.
The humor in this book is slightly on the wicked side with Henrietta making sly fun of the people in her Devonshire village, and even sometimes of show more the war effort. The humor works partly because Denys also makes Henrietta a figure of comedy, albeit a likeable one, with her penchant for a Day in Bed and her ineffectual interest in the garden. (And I must admit I totally agree with her views on a Day in Bed.) The other thing that makes the comedy work is that Henrietta says the things people think but don’t always say. She doesn’t consider the war a sacred cow at all, always to be treated with solemnity.
But Dennys doesn’t just tell silly stories. There are a few surprising moments where the people look out for each other or celebrate together in touching ways. A favorite of mine was when the imperious Mrs Savernack, tears in her eyes, brings a package of horse meat to Henrietta for her little dog Perry. I’m prickly when it comes to this kind of thing, and it doesn’t take much for sentimentality to cross over into soppiness in my mind, but Dennys stays on the right side of the line here. It’s a fun little book, and at only 158 pages, it’s well worth a couple of hours of your time.
See my complete review at Shelf Love. show less
The humor in this book is slightly on the wicked side with Henrietta making sly fun of the people in her Devonshire village, and even sometimes of show more the war effort. The humor works partly because Denys also makes Henrietta a figure of comedy, albeit a likeable one, with her penchant for a Day in Bed and her ineffectual interest in the garden. (And I must admit I totally agree with her views on a Day in Bed.) The other thing that makes the comedy work is that Henrietta says the things people think but don’t always say. She doesn’t consider the war a sacred cow at all, always to be treated with solemnity.
But Dennys doesn’t just tell silly stories. There are a few surprising moments where the people look out for each other or celebrate together in touching ways. A favorite of mine was when the imperious Mrs Savernack, tears in her eyes, brings a package of horse meat to Henrietta for her little dog Perry. I’m prickly when it comes to this kind of thing, and it doesn’t take much for sentimentality to cross over into soppiness in my mind, but Dennys stays on the right side of the line here. It’s a fun little book, and at only 158 pages, it’s well worth a couple of hours of your time.
See my complete review at Shelf Love. show less
Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945 (Bloomsbury Group) by Joyce Dennys
This second installment of Henrietta Brown's affectionate letters to her "Childhood's Friend" during WWII was just as good as the first, Henrietta's War. It's odd to find fictional letters from the British home front to a soldier stationed who-knows-where during WWII soothing, but that's just what this book is---balm for the soul. Henrietta; her calm and stable husband, Charles; their friends Lady B, the Admiral, the Conductor and Faith all epitomize the British spirit of "Keep calm and show more carry on" in the face of rationing, Fuel Target notices, gin shortages, anxiety over the safety of loved ones in service, air raids, mice, bindweed and the exasperating Mrs. Savernack. As did its predecessor, Henrietta Sees it Through makes the reader feel that it is possible to cope with nearly anything as long as one keeps the chin up and remembers to appreciate what simple pleasures remain available. Review written in 2012. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 8
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 570
- Popularity
- #43,913
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 59
- ISBNs
- 19
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