This work is based around the life of Nella Last, who was a housewife that lived throughout her whole life in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England. She wrote a diary for the Mass Observation Archive from 1939 until 1966 making it one of the most substantial diaries held by Mass Observation Archive. An edited version of the diary she wrote during World War II was originally published in 1981 as Nella Last's War: A Mother's Diary, 1939-45 and republished as Nella Last's War. Although other books were published covering her postwar years, her wartime diary inspires this film.

Her published writing describes what it was like for ordinary people to live through World War Two, reporting on the bombing of Barrow in April 1941, which included her own home and offers her reflections on a wide range of contemporary issues. The book itself comprises of a series of diary entries.

This film is inspired by the book and provides a snapshot of her concerns for her sons, those fighting overseas and of the worries of those left behind to live as ordinary a life as possible, given the circumstances through which they were living. The book is still available to this day and I commend the book to anyone interested in War history.