Thread: Best books about Britain in the Second World War Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by Anna B (# 1439) on
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I've been watching Foyle's War and have slowly but surely fallen under the spell of that handsome devil, Michael Kitchen. In my dreams, we meet over tea and I thrill him with my astonishing insights into the history of modern Britain.
There is a small problem, however, which is that I don't actually know very much about the history of modern Britain, especially her entrance into the last world war. Although I am aware that for some reason many British men find stupidity delivered in an American accent to be irresistibly attractive, I would wish to (so to speak) bone up before meeting Mr. Kitchen.
And because this of all things would rejoice his heart, I ask particularly that you recommend good books, juicy books, well-researched and witty, books upon whose friendship I can rely for years to come. Particularly since I am no more likely ever to meet Mr. Kitchen than I am to turn into a three-headed pink rhinoceros. If I am, then, to be a frustrated admirer from afar, let me please, Lord, be a slightly more educated one.
Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on
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My own interest is social history and I like Juliet Gardiner's 'wartime Britain 1939-1945' as it covers a wide range of experiences of war on the home front, set in chronological order. It's a hefty tome of nearly 700 pages but very readable.
I'm about to start an OU course on the two world wars and as some pre-reading I've just started AJP Taylor's 'The Origins of the Second World War'.
Posted by Nanny Ogg (# 1176) on
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I became interested in this subject a few years ago and have read several books about it which I have enjoyed and which have taught me far more than official history books.
Simon Garfield has published 3 books based on Mass Observation letters around the time of WWII.
"Private Battles", "We are at war" and "Our hidden lives" cover the period from before to after the war as viewed by different people. I've read all three and can recommend them as an insight to what people thought as well as how they lived.
I can also recommend "Our longest days" by Sandra Koa Wing, "Betty's Wartime Diary" by Betty Armitage and "Wartime Britain" by Dr Juliet Gardiner.
All these books are from a social history perspective rather than historic or political events.
The children's books "Carries War" and "Mr Tom" are also good reading about this period of history.
Posted by jbohn (# 8753) on
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Only about one little slice of the war, but Escape From Colditz by P. R. Reid is one of my favorite books of all time.
[code fixed]
[ 17. January 2013, 16:43: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posted by QLib (# 43) on
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This is probably not quite what you had in mind, because it's fiction and not really about the war at all - at leasst not apparently so - but the bulk of it is set in the war; it has a lot to say about what Britain was like then; who we were and who we are, and what we were doing, or thought we were doing, in the war. It's not exactly witty - though there is humour - and whether you find it maddening or wise is partly a matter of taste, but I thoroughly recommend it as background. It's Michael Frayn's Spies.
Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on
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Another very specific viewpoint - but an authentic, contemporaneous one - is Nella Last's War. Also available as a DVD called 'Housewife, 49', but much better as the book.
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on
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Yes, Spies is very good. If you want atmosphere, once you've got the basics, Nigel Balchin's novel The Small Back Room for me really brings across (what I imagine to be) the rather unheroic, keep-slogging-on atmosphere of the mid-war years. The diaries (Ancestral Voices, and Prophesying Peace) of James Lees Milne, who'd been invalided out from the army and travelled around a lot working for the National Trust, are good. And George Orwell's wartime letters from London to, I think, the Partisan Review (would that be right?) in the States provide a commentary- they're in the relevant volumes of the Collected Essays, Articles and Reviews (published here by Penguin in the 70s- don't know how easy they are to get hold of in the States - or here nowadays, come to that).
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
Another very specific viewpoint - but an authentic, contemporaneous one - is Nella Last's War.
Thank you for suggesting that. I love books like this and have just added it to my Amazon wish list.
Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
There are two more diaries as well - Nella Last's Peace and Nella Last in the 1950s.
I only discovered these two existed a couple of months ago (years after reading the first one), and I haven't read either of them yet - but they are sitting next to my bed waiting for me to finish my current novel.
Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on
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I am wondering about The Cruel Sea* which tells of the battle for the Atlantic from the perspective of seamen but and I think more crucially I read a review of the book (and film) that said it also caught the mood of the time far better than the official sources.
Jengie
*Link to Wikipedia but have had to shorten due to brackets in original
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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I can recommend the following non-fiction: How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War, by Norman Longmate. It's available on Amazon.
Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on
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I would recommend Edward Young's "One of our Submarines" for another look at how the war looked from the POV of those actually doing it. And there were many others who did descriptive stuff of their experiences, published in the '50s, and (maybe) reissued. Pierre Clostermann's "The Big Show" sticks in my mind, for instance.
"The Cruel Sea" is pretty good as far as the war goes, being more of a vehicle for that than it is a novel.
If you want a good review of the lead-in and progress of the war, I would strongly recommend trying to finda copy of David Low's "Years of Wrath" , which is a collection of his editorial cartoons from 1931 to 1945, issued in 1946 with a commentary about the situation as it existed for the time of that cartoon. Low had a huge following on both sides of the Atlantic for his cartoons. The commentary is relatively neutral, even if the cartoons are clearly pro-Allies.
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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Nevil Shute, who wrote "A Town Like Alice", also wrote several novels set in wartime Britain. "Pastoral" and "Requiem for a Wren" are two that spring to mind.
Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on
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IF you can handle the science, or are able to skip the more complex theory discussions, Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is a marvel. A lot more than just a bomb! Context in all sorts of directions.
Posted by Polly Plummer (# 13354) on
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Olivia Manning's novels in the Balkan trilogy and the Levant trilogy are good on experience of the war in those areas, and very readable.
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
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Another good naval war book by Montserrat is HMS Marlborough Will Enter Harbor.
In an entirely different vein, I recently picked up Mrs Tim Carries On, by D. E. Stevenson at a yard sale. Mrs Tim is the wife of a career army officer; in an earlier book their pre-war life is described.
Moo
Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on
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'Between Silk and Cyanide' by Leo Marks recounts his career in the Special Operations Executive 1941-45, and the complex and fascinating story of codemaking and codebreaking that supported much of the work of underground British (and other) agents behind enemy lines in Europe.
Mixed throughout are illuminating views of life in London in those years, and the intense and frequently crippling rivalries between various groups all supposedly working towards the same goal.
Posted by HCH (# 14313) on
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These came to mind readily:
"The Man Who Never Was" by Ewen Montagu (nonfiction)
"A Presumption of Death" by Jill Paton Walsh (fiction)
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Anna B:
I've been watching Foyle's War and have slowly but surely fallen under the spell of that handsome devil, Michael Kitchen.
Kitchen's brilliant. Dad fought in WWII, though he was in the Pacific Theatre. I do have that collection also. I wish I were a bit older, but if I were born in the 1920s I would likely be dead now: men in my family would be well over 90 now though my aunt will attain that age next year. Grammy lived to be 94.
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on
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That said, my dad was a Naval Officer. I do know history and have seen some brilliant dramatizations about it.
Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on
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He's desperatly unfashionable nowadays, but I have a soft spot for R.F. Delderfield. His novel "The Dreaming Suburb" is a great look at ordinary people of a london suburb between the wars, and how they felt coming into WWII.
His outstanding character in it is a WWI veteran - a pacificist when he leaves the tranches, and the book describes his journey from pacificism to understanding that a war against Hitler is neccessary.
Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on
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quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
'Between Silk and Cyanide' by Leo Marks recounts his career in the Special Operations Executive 1941-45, and the complex and fascinating story of codemaking and codebreaking that supported much of the work of underground British (and other) agents behind enemy lines in Europe.
Mixed throughout are illuminating views of life in London in those years, and the intense and frequently crippling rivalries between various groups all supposedly working towards the same goal.
One of my favourite books, his writing style is heartwarming and approachable. The book can sometimes be hard to get hold of though.
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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quote:
Originally posted by HCH:
These came to mind readily:
"The Man Who Never Was" by Ewen Montagu (nonfiction)
"Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II by Ben Macintyre"
updates this story with a lot more information now available under the 50 year rule.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
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If you like social history, how about Janie Hampton's How the Girl Guides Won the War ? Mostly about the 'Home Front' but includes a chapter on Guides in a Japanese prison camp IIRC. I gave a copy to my mother-in-law for Christmas the year it came out; she is one of the Guides who won the war, though with characteristic modesty she gives some of the credit to the Armed Forces...
I'd second the recommendation of The Cruel Sea , but if you want some non-fiction about the Battle of the Atlantic try Three Corvettes, also by Nicholas Monsarrat.
Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
He's desperatly unfashionable nowadays, but I have a soft spot for R.F. Delderfield. His novel "The Dreaming Suburb" is a great look at ordinary people of a london suburb between the wars, and how they felt coming into WWII.
His outstanding character in it is a WWI veteran - a pacificist when he leaves the tranches, and the book describes his journey from pacificism to understanding that a war against Hitler is neccessary.
Brilliant suggestion - most definitely seconded.
Posted by Lola (# 627) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
quote:
Originally posted by HCH:
These came to mind readily:
"The Man Who Never Was" by Ewen Montagu (nonfiction)
"Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II by Ben Macintyre"
updates this story with a lot more information now available under the 50 year rule.
I agree its a fascinating story. I also recomend Ben MacIntyre's Agent Zigzag again based on recently declassified material whichis tense, funny and mind-boggling by turns.
Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on
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The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (fiction)
Posted by M. (# 3291) on
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Ben Macintyre's Double Cross is also a brilliant read (we went to hear him talk about it at Wiltons a while back.
And I second the Nella Last diaries, she was a wonderful diarist.
M.
Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on
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If you are interested in the various "home services", I can recommend Osprey Publishing's "The British Home Front 1939-45" - treat as an introduction, and let it lead you on to greater things.
I have to confess that local history and map geek here got out the road atlas and started trying to locate the sites of some of the roadsigns in the photo of a big heap of removed fingerposts!
AG
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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Two children's books spring to mind, both by Jill Paton Walsh and published by Puffin.
Fireweed about two children in London and the Dolphin Crossing about the retreat from Dunkirk.
Huia
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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When I worked for the Children's Bookshop, I once got a very specific request from a little girl. She wanted books about the Second World War, but not fighting, and nobody had to die in the end.
I suggested Carrie's War by Nina Bawden, Mystery at Witchend by Malcolm Saville (the children are evacuated to a remote farm in Shropshire and think they have found a spy), and Goodnight, Mr Tom, by Michelle Magorian. Michelle Magorian also wrote Back Home, which is set just post-War. It's about a girl who was evacuated to the United States during the war and how she struggles to fit in back in England after five years away.
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on
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Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy certainly gives an account of the war in Britain, although bear in mind Waugh's social preferences. (Roman Catholic landed families put up with the war as much as anyone else, but in some ways they are not totally typical of most people's experience.)
Posted by Moo (# 107) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
Michelle Magorian also wrote Back Home, which is set just post-War. It's about a girl who was evacuated to the United States during the war and how she struggles to fit in back in England after five years away.
{tangent alert}
There were children in my elementary school who had been evacuated from England.
{/tangent alert}
Moo
Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on
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A hearty second to HCH's recommend of 'Presumption of Death.' Excellent bits about coping with wartime shortages and transport difficulties.
And Walsh's 'tag-on' to the Sayers' canon is pretty well done, too! (IMNSHO)
Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on
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This is fiction but fiction by someone who was there. Helen Forresters Three Women of Liverpool tells the story of three women during the Blitz on Liverpool. Its woman fiction of the strong woman kind but I suspect gives quite a condensed portrayal of the situation.
Jengie
Posted by Sober Preacher's Kid (# 12699) on
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After "The Cruel Sea" the other two British war films to sea are "The One That Got Away" and "I was Monty'd Double".
The first one is about German Lt. Fritz won Werra who was shot down in England in 1940. It shows his capture, interrogation and various escape attempts in England. As was British policy he was sent to Canada, German POW's were sent to North America for security reasons, to keep them out of the way.
He eventually escaped to the US, still neutral but not for long. He was smuggled to Mexico and was the only German POW to escape Allied custody. It is the only film I know of that portrays German POW's in Allied hands and it still subverts stereotypes.
"I Was Monty's Double" is a biopic of Clifton James, a old Lieutenant in the Pay Corps and a professional actor who made side money doing send-ups of Monty as he was a dead ringer. The authorities used him as a ruse to get Monty out of North Africa in time for D-Day. The film stars Clifton James as himself.
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on
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If we're talking films, I'd recommend The Way to the Stars (life of airmen and civilians on and around a bomber station between, I think, 1940 and c 1944) and Powell & Pressburger's wonderful, strange, A Canterbury Tale (a British and an American sergeant work together to find out who has been rubbing glue into the hair of young women in a Kentish village: then the key characters travel, separately IIRC, to Canterbury Cathedral where each finds something they have been looking for - some marvellously atmospheric scenes in a blitzed Canterbury). Both made during the war.
Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on
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"I leap over the wall" by Monica Baldwin. She was a nun in an enclosed order for about 30 years and left it around 1940, to find everyday life in Britain almost unrecognisable. It's a fascinating account of being thrown into wartime Britain from a time warp - everything, from underwear to music, had changed. I hope it's still in print!
Posted by Lots of Yay (# 2790) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
Another very specific viewpoint - but an authentic, contemporaneous one - is Nella Last's War.
Thank you for suggesting that. I love books like this and have just added it to my Amazon wish list.
I loved Nella Last's War. Particularly giving the dog half an aspirin to calm its nerves during air raids. Didn't know about the other two diaries - will have to hunt them down.
And I second Back Home, Carrie's War and Goodnight Mr Tom. I first read Back Home in primary school and really enjoyed it. Forgot it existed until I came across it in a second hand bookshop a couple of years ago. Couldn't leave it sitting there!
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Aravis:
"I leap over the wall" by Monica Baldwin. She was a nun in an enclosed order for about 30 years and left it around 1940, to find everyday life in Britain almost unrecognisable. It's a fascinating account of being thrown into wartime Britain from a time warp - everything, from underwear to music, had changed. I hope it's still in print!
It isn't, but there are secondhand copies floating around. I'm looking forward to reading this when it arrives ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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I Leap Over the Wall is very good - I did like the bit where she "escapes" from one of the jobs she does, when they won't let her resign!
Also, The Way to the Stars is one of my favourite British World War Two films - John Mills is brilliant in it.
Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on
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"First Light" by Geoffrey Wellum is a very readable account of the author's experiences as an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain, having come essentially straight from school.
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