The topic is essentially letters, in this book, letters written during the Second World War. My grandmother, my mother and aunt – and other aunts – all wrote voluminously to each other. They also kept diaries. Every day is recorded, often in duplicate. I have them all – an absolute treasure trove of firsthand history. I myself, from the age of 12, have had penfriends in large numbers. My mother and I both belonged to "correspondence magazines." Letters were central to our lives. I still write long, newsy emails as if they were letters, plus some actual sheets of paper with writing on, sent in an envelope…
Having always loved Joyce Grenfell and her wonderful monologues and songs, I could hear her voice throughout this book.
It is entirely composed of letters between her and Katherine Moore, which grabbed me very forcefully. It follows the two women, their work, and opinions, through several years. They disagree quite often, talking about personal topics with great freedom.
I have always been a passionate devotee of letters – have written many thousands in my lifetime and have filing cabinets full of ones I have received. Any book comprised of letters gets my approval. I bought five copies of this one and gave them to friends, who all loved it as much as I did.
In 1957 Katharine Moore wrote to defend a poem that Joyce Grenfell had criticised on the radio. The two soon became pen-friends and were to share their experiences of life until Joyce's death. This is a complete record of their correspondence.
This is a Persephone Books reissue, which was recommendation enough for me when I first ordered it.
That was before I began to write the family memoir series, and it worked as encouragement and inspiration. The story is all about women coping with the strains and challenges of World War II, using ingenuity and stoicism when everything changes so drastically.
It perfectly fits what I was then working on, and is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that should never have been forgotten. It has wit, insight, and romance.
PI David Randall is not a fan of singer Sherry White, but when he learns she has received threatening letters, he agrees to help with security for her concerts in Parkland.
When Sherry’s personal psychic quits, Randall enlists Camden to help Sherry deal with her stage fright. Randall’s investigation is…
I had long wanted to read this book, and when I finally got around to it, I was absolutely immersed in it from start to finish.
The writing is magnificent, the subject grueling. Nobody in it is safe. It is an unflinching account, told from first-hand experience but fictionalized, of the realities of war at sea. I have read several other Monsarrats, and they are all brilliant.
This one fits best with my own quieter story of the women left behind. An additional detail makes it even more appropriate, because my Aunt Wendy knew Nicholas Monsarrat.
Based on the author's own vivid experiences, The Cruel Sea is the nail-biting story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two.
Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat and mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves.
Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary, heroic men who had to face a brutal menace which would strike without warning…
I found this book of utter fascination. I read it twice.
The author’s character and reactions to the ravages of war resemble, to some extent, my aunt’s own behaviour. Stoicism, pragmatism, just getting on with it. Whether German or British, this generation of women had a strength and confidence that I breathlessly admire.
Whilst Berlin at the end of the war was very different from Manchester, there are definite shared experiences and thoughts.
For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. "With bald honesty and brutal lyricism" (Elle), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. "Spare and unpredictable, minutely observed and utterly free of self-pity" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and…
Human lie detector, Charmaine Digby, is psyched to put her ability to the test as the County Coroner's new investigative assistant. But she sure never expected she’d need it to solve a murder! Not until she got her first assignment. Interview the hunky doctor reporting the suspicious death of Trudy,…
As a crime writer, I am always looking for fellow authors with a different approach to "whodunnit."
This book has echoes of "Foyle’s War" and the difficulty in taking one small murder seriously in the face of wholesale wartime slaughter. The research is deftly employed, and the story is satisfying.
When writing my own book, I was grateful for this additional angle, which linked to my other writing as well as adding background knowledge.
First published as Direct Hit Saturday 7th September, 1940. The sun is shining, and in the midst of the good weather Londoners could be mistaken for forgetting their country was at war - until the familiar wail of the air-raid sirens heralds an enemy attack. The Blitz has started, and normal life has abruptly ended - but crime has not. That night a man's body is discovered in an unmarked van in the back streets of West Ham. When Detective Inspector John Jago is called to the scene, he recognises the victim: local Justice of the Peace, Charles Villiers. The…
A true account of the author’s Aunt Wendy’s life between 1939 and 1942. The book is based entirely on family letters and diaries that the author gained access to in 2016. Wendy came from a conventional upper-middle-class family, living in Cheshire. In the 1930s, she had enjoyed cruises and friendships with people in the arts and politics.
The war changed everything for her, including her personality, to some extent. From a carefree, affluent life, she was plunged into frustration and a very different circle of friends and colleagues. Her young husband was lost over Singapore in 1942, and she spent the rest of the war looking to replace him – with a decided lack of success.
John Rossi has grown up in New Jersey, but he was born on Maui. He returns when his best friend is murdered there. He finds love and family, while dealing with dark forces.
In 1019, Bergthora Bjornsdóttir returns to Iceland to take revenge for a violent act she suffered long ago. She inadvertently drives Engilborg, the young wife of a powerful and ruthless chieftain into the arms of the girl’s uncle, shattering the lives of family and friends in the rural community. Kjartan,…
