This is a wonderful account of civilian life in Germany during World War I. Although there is not a lot really new to be learned about the Baroness' famous sons, the details of daily life are fascinating; for example, I had not realised that food was already desperately short in Spring 1915, and the lengths people went to, to provide horrible substitutes for things we take for granted, like coffee, flour, leather and metal, make excellent reading. The constant anxiety felt by a mother with two sons and a husband serving in the armed forces is very movingly described, and the way his mother found out about Manfred's death, and the subsequent ceremonies she endured, alone make this a worthwhile historical record.

I was interested in the different (German) slant given to the events of the War we get in our (English) way. I first noticed this many years ago when visiting the Bayeux Tapestry, with audio guide in hand, finding out that Duke William was a Liberator and that nasty Harold was a robber baron! I also found many of the claims of victories to be wildly exaggerated, although that is not unique.
Random thoughts: no mention of the silver cups with which Manfred commemorated each Victory; Albert Ball's vanquisher is inferred (but not actually stated) as being Lothar, which I doubt, and so perhaps did his mother; the description of the collapse of German morale in 1918, and the depredations of the worker bands is fascinating.

This book is produced to the usual high Schiffer standard on beautiful paper. I have three gripes; 1) the maps are not very helpful; 2) the numbering of the Endnotes in the text, which are essential to fill out and make sense of the text of what is after all a diary that the author never expected to be for public consumption, do not line up with those numbers in the Endnotes themselves and 3) a lot of the pictures are from postcards of buildings which while relevant, are dull.

I say this with some diffidence because Schiffer's standards are so high, but I still enjoyed the book, learned a lot, and congratulate Suzanne Hayes Fischer on bringing it to us.