It's a really great read charting Vera's life from her childhood as Vera Welch in the East End up to her retired life including her 90th birthday in 2007. 

For a lot of people, Vera Lynn epitomises an era. Known as 'The Forces' Sweetheart', her music helped keep soldiers posted abroad connected with home during the second world war. Her songs came to symbolise the hopes, sentiments and patriotism of a nation, although her career was also successful before and after the war. 

The book is written in a lovely, easy to read style - you really get a sense of Vera's personality and how she was feeling at the time. There are some lovely little stories and anecdotes included throughout; some of my favourites are about the trips she went on as a child as part of a performance group called Madame Harris's Kracker Kabaret Kids and also about her experiences of recording and performing during the 1940s.

It's interesting to learn how each of her well-known songs came to be part of her repertoire and how she was a runaway success with 'our boys' in the forces even though it wasn't always plain sailing for her back at home. There are a few people I suspect came to deeply regret turning down the chance to work with her.

As well as her brilliant career as a singer, Vera also had lead roles in three films recorded one per year between 1942 and 1944; "We'll Meet Again", "Rhythm Serenade" and "One Exciting Night". Here she is in a lovely clip from Rhythm Serenade:

A bonus for me was that my copy of the book also includes several pages of photos (plus lovely images on the front and back covers) that I was able to spend a long time admiring. She looks so beautiful in photos where she's dressed and made up for performing, but I equally enjoyed the photos of her entertaining the troops in Burma. This woman makes army fatigues look like high fashion! 

Check out the sharp suit in the above clip of her singing "It's so easy to say good morning". Between that, the hat and her wonderful hairstyle, this clip alone will be providing me with outfit inspiration for months.

All in all, I'd recommend the book to anyone with an interest in either Vera herself or the era in general.