I Had a Swell Time

This unmitigated view into a young girl's mind is a treasure.

It is a rare gift to glimpse the people our parents were before us. We are fortunate that Anne Milne has shared her mother's diary, offering an intimate portrait of a young woman coming into herself. Bernice's world is ablaze with passionately felt highs and lows - love and hate, bold confidence and questioning insecurity. In her pages, everything feels possible, and everything feels at risk. Her reflections are poignant, relatable, and often unintentionally hilarious. This vivid window into her inner life will resonate with readers across generations. I'm glad to have met her in these pages.

I really enjoyed reading Anne Milne's I Had a Swell Time, a transcription of her mother's diary from much of her teenage years in 1930s Ontario. Bernice Hodgins' diary tells the story of a young fun-loving teenage girl spending joyful summers in Toronto, Bayfield and Seaforth. It is a coming of age tale written in the words of an honest and enthusiastic diarist. She doesn't hold back in describing the pleasures, foibles and irritations of growing up with — as she'd say — swell friends. I was quite impressed by how free-thinking, self-confident and independent Bernice was in an era contemporary readers might smugly assume was impossible in small town Ontario. We would be wrong to assume society then was conservative, restrictive and dominated by strictures of parents, church and school. Bernice's antics and her times showed none of that: for her those were heady and fun times for sure. Her daughter Anne Milne has done an excellent job faithfully transcribing her mother's entries. She lets Bernice's own words (and occasional emojis) lay bare the emotions and disappointments of a young woman on the verge of adulthood. Even more impressive for me was the inclusion of very well researched footnotes throughout which shed light on Bernice's commentary on people, places and events. I was particularly happy she included a 'dramatis personae' chapter, if only to help keep track of the myriad boyfriends and prospective husbands she entertained and assessed. I became hooked wondering who she would choose: would it be the aspiring banker, the 'jock', the boy next door, the one she quarrelled with constantly, or the charming casanova. No spoilers from me — readers will have to find out themselves but I'll say, it was a surprise to me!

"In 1928, Bernice Hodgins began to keep a diary, never imagining that a century later women would read the entries she composed between the ages of 12 and 26 and recognize aspects of themselves in her words. Tenderly edited by her daughter, Anne Milne, I Had a Swell Time is a singular coming-of-age story, both intimate and historically informative. You'll be grateful to get to know Bernice in this winsome book."

More praise coming soon; share your thoughts after reading!