At the outset of the Second World War Ralph and Frances Partridge were both convinced pacifists. These extracts from Frances' war diary present an intimate and vivid picture of their life at Ham Spray in Wiltshire, a house they both adored and which became a place of refuge to many of the Bloomsbury circle, and numerous other waifs and strays of war. Frances Partridge's perceptively witty and lively account, embracing as it does more general aspects of Ham Spray activity such as music, reading and conversation, as well as evocative descriptions of nature, is held together by the thread of the Partridges' passionate concern and interest in the course of events, coupled with their belief that War itself was ethically unjustifiable.