The Writers of Wales Database

YOUNGHUSBAND, EILEEN

Website: onewomanswar.wordpress.com / www.eyounghusband.com

Eileen Younghusband was born in London in 1921. After her wartime service in the WAAF, she had a successful career in hotel management, catering and taking on the male establishment of the industry. She also ran a variety of businesses, from selling herbs to Fortnum & Mason to supplying thousands of tons of scrap metal for a company in Spain. At the age of 87, she graduated from the Open University as one of its Students of the Year.

Eileen lives in Wales, where she remains an active campaigner on health and education issues. She gives regular talks on the role of Radar in World War Two and the work of the Filter Room.
Her first autobiography, Not an Ordinary Life, was published in 2009, followed by One Woman’s War (Candy Jar, 2011), a vivid insight into the life of a young woman facing the grim reality of war.

Eileen is a Member of The Welsh Academy.

Selected publications
Not an Ordinary Life (Eileen Younghusband, 2009)
One Woman’s War (Candy Jar, 2011)


Reviews
With respect to Not an Ordinary Life:

“…A unique, personal and social insight into wartime Europe…This is an important historic document of social, political and family history. A must read for anyone interested in World War Two and women at war”.
Abbie Wightwick - feature writer, Western Mail  

"…Perhaps the most fascinating part of Eileen's inspirational autobiography are the descriptions of her time in the WAAF. These chapters are hugely informative, and written with great clarity and honesty, as well as a lightness of touch."
Fred Mawer, Travel Journalist for The Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday and The Independent.

With respect to One Woman’s War

"…There is much that is remarkable about Eileen Younghusband: she is 90-years-old and is as sharp as a knife – indeed I suspect that she is a lot brighter than many half her age."
Emma Soames, Saga Magazine

"...The Few could not have won the Battle of Britain if it had not been for the Many. Eileen Younghusband vividly reveals the unsung heroism of Fighter Command's Filter Room during the Second World War. One Woman's War is living, breathing history, resonant with warmth and personality."
Jed Mercurio, Writer

"...[She] gets straight to the heart of what was taking you through her war years in a voice that is bright as the buffed-up buttons on her officer’s uniform. You don’t so much read the twenty-nine chapters as keep coming back to hear her tell you, with disarming honesty, intelligence, and wit, another episode of a story that needs to be told. Listen. It is different from the rest.
Amanda Rackstraw, Creative Writing Tutor, Cardiff University

Not an Ordinary Life (Eileen Younghusband, 2009)

From London suburbs to French au pair, city clerk to secret War Room, V2 detection to VE-Day, concentration camp guide to language teacher, pig breeder to busy hotelier and scrap metal Queen—then bachelor’s degree in her eighty-seventh year!
How changing times brought historical events into the author's life.

One Woman’s War (Candy Jar, 2011)

The Second World War is dominated by heroic tales of men defending their country against a formidable enemy but what about the women who also played their part in fighting for freedom? Eileen Younghusband (90) was just 18 when she joined the Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She quickly demonstrated her keen intellect and mathematical skills, playing a crucial role in Fighter Command’s underground Filter Room. Working gruelling shifts under enormous pressure she and her companions worked tirelessly, tracking the swarms of enemy aircraft that sought to break the British resolve. She even had the dubious honour of detecting the first of Hitler’s devastating V2 rockets as it fell on an unsuspecting London. This book gives a vivid insight into the life of a young woman facing the grim reality of war.

To purchase this title from onewomanswar.wordpress.com, click on the front cover