i don't know if any of you are familiar with harold nicolson. he was a british mp during the war.he premier diarist, i think, in britain. he was an mp. he helped bring churchill to power. their son wrote a book called portrait of a marriage. wonderfully colorful guy. his real value is that he left this first hand account of history in his diary. he brings everything to live. if you have access to diaries like this or letters like this and it makes it much easier to write in the style where you feel like you hope your readers feel like they are there when you are describing it. he and many, many others did that. and so if you have access to their papers then you are halfway home. with the americans that i am writing about that was also true. ed murrow wrote wonderful letters. the one who really wrote wonderful letters was his wife, janet. she wrote to her parents virtually every week. so when they were caught in an air raid she wrote this very long letter back to parents in which there is a chapter in the book. it begins with this air raid and having this wonderful dinner in london