The Tightening String by Ann Bridge was first published in 1962 but the setting is Budapest from the spring of 1940 to Easter 1941 in Budapest. The characters are the British diplomats and their families as they experience the sensation of being in a sack with its string being pulled tighter as Italy enters the war and the Germans/Nazis take over more and more European countries.

However it’s the fate of the 44,000 British prisoners-of-war who have been captured at Dunkirk that are uppermost in the thoughts of the women, mainly the wives of diplomats. The British prisoners have almost no clothing and are freezing in their German prisons, with just one blanket to cover them and almost no food to eat.

With the Red Cross being run by old men who had been in the First World War who are absolutely clueless about how to get food parcels and warm clothing to the British men – and their refusal to be told how they should be doing it, particularly by a woman – it’s down to Mrs Eynsham the wife of the Counsellor at the British Legation to organise everything, including food donations, clothing and teaching people, including the men, to knit socks and scarves for the prisoners-of-war.

This was a great read, very atmospheric and also I think it must be very true to what the author was actually doing at the time. Ann Bridge waited over 20 years before writing about her experiences, I suspect the whole thing weighed on her chest all those years. She fairly kicks the Red Cross for being completely incompetent, certainly at the beginning of the war, I suspect that she waited until all those in control of it at the time had died off. As ever with books of this type and era the author’s frequent use of the word English when she actually means British is very annoying!

Below is the author’s note which appears at the front of the book.