Thousands of Canadian war brides shared their stories, glad and tragic, with WREN, writer, weaver and war bride Eswyn Lyster. She gathers their intimate experiences and the currents of history with the thread of her own life. Canada's war brides were service women, defense workers, loggers and spies. War's intensity made brief romances, hasty weddings and long separations. Upon victory, the men went home. Young women, often with infants, waited; some in concentration camps. OPERATION DADDY transported 48,000 war brides and their 21,000 children, some on dysentery riddled former troop ships. Babies died. Transcontinental train trips united lovers and in-laws. Lives were lived in cities, villages, farms, reservations and in Canada's wilderness. Some faltered. Most stayed and flourished, with over a million descendants. Then their Canadian citizenship evaporated. Eswyn Lyster describes the campaign for restoration. Canada's war brides and their generations brought hybrid vigour and cosmopolitan experience to Canada. Exploits ranging from shopkeeper to homemaker, ballerina, vice-regal consort and rockstar are told. MOST EXCELLENT CITIZENS reaches around the world and behind enemy lines to recount the whole war bride experience. A story of love, danger, assimilation and lives well-lived, MOST EXCELLENT CITIZENS is ground breaking scholarship; carefully researched and fully indexed. Shared experiences for war brides to cherish and a reference for anyone with a war bride in their family.