Still sassy, Doris Gregory takes the reader back over seventy years to the time when she broke with tradition, first by publicly challenging the University of British Columbia's discrimination against women, and then by joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps. Her memoir allows us to travel with her across the Atlantic at the height of the U-boat infestation and to take refuge in underground shelters while bombs fall on London. Unlike most memoirs of the war that focus on battles, Gregory shows the everyday mundane activities of office life, working under some less-than-brilliant supervisors. Gregory transforms what could have been a dull soldier's life into one of small adventures: cycling along traffic-free roads through southern England, the midlands and Scottish lowlands, hopping on the ferry to Ulster, slipping into neutral, forbidden Eire, and looking into the gun barrel of an angry German sentry. Although at times the war weighs heavily upon her, the author's optimism, enthusiasm and sense of humour permeate this memoir, full of laughter and surprises.

Robert MacLean was born in Toronto 1947. He has taught at various Canadian universities; for a number of years now, he has been living and working in Greece. He is the author of a book of essays, Narcissus and the Voyeur, and the novel Foreign Matter (Atheneum). He has also written several screenplays.

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