I would describe this book as an enjoyable festive read. Nothing ground-shaking but just a nice easy read. I liked the variety of accounts included, although I do feel they could have been sorted more effectively as for the most part it was just a random assortment with no clear theme in most of the chapters. I also would have liked to see the combat based stories set among the civilian accounts because it almost felt like two completely separate books. Moving in places, this is a vivid and compelling account of the reality of war for normal people on the ground. I particularly enjoyed that not all the stories were from the perspective of children because you never know how reliable they are and it can be a bit monotonous. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a light festive read in the run up to Christmas.