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Tag: WWII

May 3, 2022

These Days by Lucy Caldwell

Reviewed by Harriet ‘two sisters, four nights, one city’ is the subtitle of this riveting new novel by Lucy Caldwell. I don’t think I’ve…

February 8, 2022

1942: Britain at the Brink, by Taylor Downing

Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies As E. H Carr’s masterly introduction to the study of history, What Is History?, explains, the idea of a fully…

April 22, 2021

There’s No Story There – Wartime Writing, 1944-1945 by Inez Holden

Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is one of two recent releases from Handheld Press that cover aspects of wartime experience – in this case…

November 10, 2020

The Spirit of the Blitz – edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang

Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I thought I’d learnt to check how long a book is before I agreed or offered to review it, but…

June 7, 2018

The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers

Translated by Margaret Bettauer Dembo Reviewed by Gill Davies The novel is set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and was first published in…

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s
July 11, 2017

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s by Anne Sebba

Reviewed by Helen Parry Among the many people Anne Sebba interviewed for this book was the playwright Jean-Claude Grumberg. During the German occupation of…

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s
May 17, 2017

Q&A with Anne Sebba, author of Les Parisiennes

Helen: Hello Anne! Let me first say that I was bowled over by Les Parisiennes – it’s a real tour de force of narrative…

Heartthrobs Dyhouse
February 14, 2017

Heartthrobs by Carol Dyhouse

Reviewed by Harriet Subtitled ‘A History of Women and Desire’, this book explores the fields of literature, film and popular romance. Ranging from the…

October 18, 2016

Diary of the Dark Years 1940 – 1944 by Jean Guéhenno

Translated and annotated by David Ball Review by Terence Jagger This is a sombre book, the diary of a thoughtful but determined man – …

October 11, 2016

Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes

Reviewed by Simon They’ve done it again! Slightly Foxed have brought out yet another fascinating, entertaining, and well-written memoir – and another one that…

August 18, 2016

A Hero in France by Alan Furst

Reviewed by Annabel It’s been some years since I read an Alan Furst novel, although I own up to having a shelf-full of them….

April 7, 2016

The Bitter Taste of Victory by Lara Feigel

Reviewed by Rob Spence This book is a companion piece to Feigel’s The Love-Charm of Bombs (reviewed here), which examined the lives of some prominent writers in…

October 22, 2015

Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance by Robert Gildea

Reviewed by Falaise Back in the ancient mists of time – or, at least, 1986 – a youthful version of me (think a bad…

July 22, 2015

The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys

Reviewed by Danielle Helen Humphreys writes some of the most lyrical prose I have come across. I’m slowly reading my way through her work,…

April 16, 2015

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

Reviewed by Victoria In this outstanding work of cinema history, Mark Harris follows the fortunes of five big name Hollywood directors who enlisted in…

April 9, 2015

A War of Flowers by Jane Thynne

Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long This is the third in a series of books featuring Clara Vine, a film actress in pre-war Berlin. If you…

April 9, 2015

Interview with Jane Thynne on her Clara Vine Novels

Interview by Annabel A: Firstly, congratulations on A War of Flowers!  It took the life and career of Clara Vine (Anglo-German film actress and British spy)…

January 23, 2015

The Fires of Autumn by Irène Némirovsky

Translated by Sandra Smith Reviewed by Harriet The Fires of Autumn, first published in France in 1957, is the most recent of Irène Némirovsky’s…

January 23, 2015

The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt

Written by Victoria It’s the summer of 1940 and Lisbon in Portugal is bursting at the seams with people desperate to leave mainland Europe…

October 15, 2014

First Time Solo by Iain Maloney

Reviewed by Andrew Blackman Pick up a book set in World War Two, and you have certain expectations. These expectations are largely frustrated by First…

July 24, 2014

To War With Whitaker by Hermione Ranfurly

Reviewed by Claire If I were knowingly heading into an active theatre of war, I like to think I would go armed with the…

July 18, 2014

Over the Ocean by Erica Fischer

Translated by Andrew Brown Reviewed by Jean Morris The media were full of the D-Day commemorations as I read this book – stories of…

April 8, 2014

The Love-Charm of Bombs by Lara Feigel

Reviewed by Harriet Devine For the past couple of years, I have been fascinated by the events of WW2, and have found myself drawn…

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