Shortly before the Second World War, a column by ` Mrs Miniver` appeared in THE TIMES, the first of many recounting the everyday events of a middle-class Chelsea family: Mrs Miniver`s thrill at the sight of October chrysanthemums; her sense of doom when the faithful but rackety car is replaced; the escapades of Vin, Toby & Judy, her unpredictable young children; visits to the Kent cottage &, as war becomes a reality, the strange experience of acquiring gas masks & the cameraderie of those unsettling early days. Mrs Miniver enchanted the public with her sympathy & affectionate humour, capturing ordinary lives & values now darkened by war. First published in book form in 1939 & later an enormously successful film, MRS MINIVER became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic -- with Churchill exclaiming that it had done more for the Allied cause than a flotilla of battleships.