Women ‘kept the home fires burning’ while their men went off to war. This is the usual image of the part played by women in the First World War, reinforced through countless posters, government exhortations and even popular songs. It is very far from the truth. As this remarkable book shows, originally published in 1987, the truth was that women showed themselves capable of undertaking many roles hitherto the sole prerogative of men, a position accepted during the emergency of war but quickly ‘righted’ once peace was restored: the women who had helped to win the war were displaced by the returning heroes from the Front.