Letters from the Little Blue Room

An Intimate Portrait of World War I

Daisy Thomson Gigg, Daisy Thomson Gibbs

• Publisher: Barbican Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781909954984
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: History

A 'lost' women's classic from World War I, published for the first time since 1916.

Letters from the Little Blue Room is a powerful sequence of letters from 1914-1916, from a Scottish woman to her younger brother, who was returning to Europe as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, to fight in the trenches of WWI.

Published anonymously, this edition reveals the identity of the author, the Scottish-American writer Daisy Thomson Gigg.

She is writing from Dunfermline, the hometown of Andrew Carnegie and the base of the Black Watch regiment. Her letters bristle with humour, advice, wisdom drawn from poetry and essays, and poignant tales of life and characters on the home front. It builds toward an utterly moving climax.

A foreword by Professor Angela K. Smith sets the book in the context of other women writers of the period. An afterword by Martin Goodman, emeritus professor of Creative Writing at the University of Hull, adds true biographical detail to the characters met in the book, including the author. Footnotes help readers grasp the contemporary details that fuel the real-time storytelling.

This is a strong addition to War Studies, Women's Studies, and the history of Canadian involvement in WWI. It also brings a powerful Scottish-American author to global attention.

Very much based on true-life observations and the unfolding narrative of the war, Letters from the Little Blue Room also displays the power of a 20th century master of fiction.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Letters from the Little Blue Room
• 1. On Returning from Holidays – Nice and Otherwise
• 2. War-Conditions in our Town
• 3. The Regulars – Personality v. Money
• 4. “The Myriad-Handed Murder of Multitudes”
• 5. To Valcartier Concentration Camp, Quebec
• 6. To Salisbury Plain
• 7. Memories
• 8. Our Boys – Part of the Battle
• 9. Women and War. – The Pride of the British Army
• 10. On Friendship and Tolerance. – Enter Bettetina
• 11. Passion – “A Temple Pure”
• 12. On Disillusionment
• 13. Functions
• 14. Spring. – Great-Grandmother Eve. – “Ours!”
• 15. Enter Pilot Me II
• 16. The Hump – And A Cure
• 17. “Ours!” Again – “The Seventh’s Farewell”
• 18. Heroism And Heroes
• 19. A Thrashing from God
• 20. Snobs. – National Anthems – On Going Abroad
• 21. Wire to Southampton, July 3rd, 1915
• 22. An Old Maid’s Family
• 23. Army v. Navy
• 24. Morality or “Usualness”
• 25. Trees. – The Ink of Fools
• 26. A Creed – Poverty. – Lives Of Great Men
• 27. Birthday Reflections – and a Message
• 28. Another Crusader Goes Forth. – Happiness. – The Gleam
• 29. Bettetina Stays. – “Bread and Roses.” – “Not Fallen”
• 30. On Christmas Things. – Toys
• 31. Too Young! – Bettetina’s Tastes. – The Poor Press
• 32. “Nuts” – 1915
• 33. The Pride of The British Army Goes Out. – A Prayer. – “Resolve”
• 34. That First Morning Feeling. – On Men’s and Women’s Giving. – Symbols
• 35. On Art – High and Otherwise
• 36. Hard Lines!
• 37. On “Moral” Writers – The Darkened Streets. – Shortage Of Paper
• 38. Spring Comes Again
• 39. Wire
• 40. On Death
• 41. On Life
• 42. On Going Into Action
• 43. In Hospital – Harry Passes
• 44. A Hero Without A Halo – Mrs. St. Clair Stobart’s Message To Women
• Afterword
• Acknowledgements
• Notes