Four Reads about the 1940's

Some of my recent reads including two of my 1940’s picks

I don’t know whether it’s being back in lockdown, but I seem to be happy spending a reasonable slice of my reading life on the British Homefront during World War II. It may be something to do with the “make do and mend” or the classic “keep calm and carry on” attitudes that pervade the four books that I’ll discuss below, but there’s something comforting about focusing on the day to day domestic dramas of everyday people as the war rages on the in background.

Yours Cheerfully by A.J.Pearce

Now if you haven’t read Dear Mrs. Bird stop right here and read that one first as Yours Cheerfully is the second of the Emmy Lake Chronicles. The eponymous Mrs. Bird has now left Women’s Friend magazine and Emmy is free to dispense her kind, no-nonsense advice in her weekly advice column, Yours Cheerfully. It’s the third year of Britain being at war and the bombing raids are on-going, rationing is in full-swing and the government need to step up their munitions production. Women start to become central to the Government’s war effort because, with the men away, they need labour in the fields and factories of Britain. Women’s Friend are asked to encourage their readers to support the war effort and Emmy finds herself writing a series of articles about women working in munitions. However, there are some things that she cannot put a positive spin on; the lack of childcare or the unfair pensions scheme for war widows. She finds herself trapped between her responsibilities to her readers and the Government’s recruitment drive. It was “topping” to be back with Emmy and her best friend Bunty. There’s a touch of Enid Blyton to these books in the best sort of way. They’re gentle, wholesome reads and rest assured, nothing insurmountable happens.

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

This is a joy of a book, frothy and light with an acerbic almost cruel edge. It’s 1945, but in the May of Teck Club, the gentile atmosphere still feels a little Edwardian. The Club is “for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London.” Most of our protagonists fit into that particular age bracket with the exception of three unmarried women who seem to be there as a salient reminder to the girls that their future plans should include marriage. Joanna is an elocution teacher whose voice rings through the floors of the Club’s London townhouse as she teaches her pupils to recite out loud. Jane is very invested in her “brain-work” which seems to involve shady dealings for a crooked publisher, all of which must be fuelled by chocolate. Selina meanwhile, knows the exact hip measurements required to be able to get through the upper bathroom window and onto the roof for private assignations. There may be a war going on, but the major issues of the day are the menu in the dining room, diets, dating and who will be allowed to wear the shared Schiaparelli dress that evening. The book flits lightly between the girls, the past and the present and when tragedy strikes, it does so in almost a detached manner, perhaps because everyone has become inured to loss to some extent over the long years of the war. Just as you think the dust is settling, Spark throws in one final little twist of cruelty, not allowing the reader to forget that the war might be ending, but human nature carries on

These Wonderful Rumours by May Smith

This is a slightly different pick, a non-fiction read. May Smith was in her twenties during the war and lived in the Derbyshire village of Swadlincote. She was a schoolteacher and lived in rather close conditions with her parents, grandparents and Miss Sanders, their lodger. These are her wartime diaries and they cover the years from 1939-1945, giving us an understanding of daily life on the home front. From the arrival of evacuees at May’s school to building Anderson shelters and digging for victory in the back garden, May’s life is impacted by the war at every level. Despite this, her diaries are a joy. May struggles to reign in her spending, she’s particularly fond of books and hats, and she has two admirers to juggle Fred and Doug. Life is busy and seemingly filled with small pleasures. Her writing is clear and confident and she has a particularly wicked sense of humour that, together with the photos of her and her friends interspersed throughout the book, lead me to think we would have been firm friends had we known each other;

“Had a dreadful experience. I was just stepping delicately across the floor when my feet shot from under me and I fell prostrate, wildly clawing the air. Felt most humiliated. If it had been anyone else, I would have been most tickled.”

V for Victory by Lissa Evans

Lissa is often to be heard on the Backlisted Podcast, the podcast that “brings life to old books.” As well as being an entertaining and knowledgeable presence on the podcast, she’s a great writer. The blurb on the front of my copy of V for Victory notes that she can marry the mundane with the magical and I think that’s very true. Add meticulous historical research and a flair for creating warm, rounded characters and her books are a pleasure to read. V for Victory works as a standalone book, but it’s actually the third in a series. The first is called Crooked Heart and the second, Old Baggage. Mattie, my favourite character from Old Baggage, doesn’t make an appearance in this book, but her intellect and indomitable attitude to life are manifest in Noel her Godson. The story of Noel and his adopted Aunt Vee is intertwined with that of Winnie a senior air-raid warden. As the bombs rain down on London, V for Victory is really about the struggle of ordinary people to get through the war as best they can with bravery and a sense of humour.