The Cruel Sea (1951) by Nicholas Montserrat

Book Review by Mary P: Our theme for the month was naval fiction, and I decided to read The Cruel Sea which when I looked for a copy of the book was said to be “ a classic “ The book is divided into 7 parts, each one covering a year of the War in … Continue reading →

Women in Exile (1942) by Jean Ross

This wartime novel (written by Scottish author Irene Dale Hewson, but published pseudonymously) takes as its main subject the plight of women evacuees during the Second World War, with the concomitant theme of exile both implicitly and explicitly present throughout. Attention is focused away from the blitz-stricken capital (though London – and also Belfast – … Continue reading →

Sunset over Soho by Gladys Mitchell (1943)

This novel – one of the Mrs Bradley mystery series for which its author is chiefly known – centres around the strange discovery of the body of an old man in a makeshift coffin following a London air raid. The opening of the novel finds the inscrutable sleuth-psychologist (her day job is working as psychiatric … Continue reading →

Holdfast by A. G. Street (1946)

Shedding a relatively rare light on the plight of rural England in time of war, this novel by A. G. Street (author of the better-known Farmer’s Glory (1932)) concentrates on the story of a single farm in the south west of England. It centres on the character of Phoebe Carpenter, a young farmer’s wife who … Continue reading →

The English Air by D. E. Stevenson (1940)

This novel by Edinburgh-born writer D. E. Stevenson (her father’s cousin was Robert Louis Stevenson) centres upon the story of Franz (‘Frank’) Von Heiden, the son of a Nazi official and an English woman, and is set in the run-up to, and early days of the Second World War. Ostensibly in England on a private … Continue reading →

Those Who Remain by Eileen Tremayne (1942)

Shuttling between London and the secluded village of ‘Eldbury’ in the early part of the Second World War, this novel concerns the plight of a single family as they retreat to the relative safety of the countryside, while outside events develop and gradually begin to impinge on their lives. References to the previous war, together … Continue reading →

To All the Living by Monica Felton (1945)

This novel gives an account of the experience of a group of men and women working in a munitions factory (‘Blimpton’, near the town of Dustborough) during the Second World War. Felton supplies a detailed, not to say exhaustive picture of the innumerable challenges involved in managing such a site, intermingled with the inevitable and … Continue reading →

The Unready Heart by Richard Sherman (1944)

Not a writer readily associated with depictions of wartime London (or indeed with longer fiction), Sherman ‘s short novel focuses on the plight of one Barbara Loomis, who, having escaped to the capital from her home-town of Leeds, is disappointed to have her quest for personal autonomy rudely interrupted by the untimely advent of the … Continue reading →

Mr Bunting Goes to War by Robert Greenwood (1941)

Greenwood’s irony-laden tale of the ‘little man’ in time of war (and successor to the well-received Mr Bunting (1940)) shows clear shades of the likes of Mr Pickwick and The Diary of a Nobody’s  hapless protagonist, Charles Pooter. Here, however, the backdrop is altogether more ominous, as this distinguished literary-comic lineage is transposed to the … Continue reading →

Enduring Adventure by Norah C. James (1944)

This novel (by the author of the earlier and better known Sleeveless Errand) supplies a lucid account of life on the home front, and in particular the experience of the London blitz, giving voice to the trials, fears, doubts and frustrations undergone by those involved. That the author is, at least in part, concerned to buoy … Continue reading →