Hedrick, Irene Hope. Memories of a Big Sky British War Bride.

HEDRICK, Irene Hope. Memories of a big sky British war bride. Globe Pequot. 324p. c2006. 0-7627-3958-4. $16.95. SA

In the waning months of WW II at least 70,000 British women who had married American military men sailed to the US on "bride ships." These ships, sometimes luxury vessels like the Queen Mary, were outfitted with nurseries for those who were bringing newborn babies to waiting grand; parents. Elfrieda Berthiaume Skukert and Barbara Smith Scibetta, the authors of War Brides of World War II (1988), estimated that almost one million war brides immigrated to countries around the world during and after the war.

The author married her husband in Lancaster, England in the fall of 1943 after nearly a year of dating. She sailed to the US on the Mauretania in early 1945 and made her way west to her husband's family. Her welcome was less than effusive and served as a forecast of things to come. When her husband returned from his tour of duty he went to school under the G.I. Bill, as did so many of the returning military forces. But Ray Hedrick was never able to settle down, and so the family (eventually three children were born to the couple) moved often. Irene Hedrick does not mention many friends and she may have led a lonely existence until late in her 56-year-long marriage. In each new town and home she made the best of sometimes difficult situations, remembering her mother's advice: "Everything will be all right come morning."

Her life did not turn out as she expected. It was not until after her husband died that she began to write about it; he would not have approved of writing about personal experiences. Penelope Power, retired Libn., Baltimore, MD

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