Book recs please - easy but lovely reads maybe wartime fiction

Recommend Sarah Waters' Night Watch about ambulance drivers in WW2. Soon to be on TV so read it quickly.

Just finished All Quiet on the Western Front about young German soldiers in WW1, absolutely stunning. Received it from a friend who handed them out for World Book night, I can see why it's a classic.

I read Vera Britten's "Testament.." books about 15 years ago and still remember the effect they had, so moving. About WWI and based on her own experiences.

Have you tried The Long Song by Andrea Levy. Very good Read

The Pat Barker 'Regeneration' trilogy of books are fantastic about wartime poets and their shellshock

I reccomend Sebastian Faulks, I recently read three of his, they all had wartime connections and are beautifully written. Enjoy! : )

Recently read Their Finest Hour and A Half by Lissa Evans. Set on the home front follows a girl who goes to write scripts for moral boosting public information films. Very light and tongue in cheek but also heart warming. Is now one of my favourite modern fiction.

I'm reading 'Nella Last's War' at the moment - it's based on diaries written by Nella Last, who was a housewife living in Barrow in Furness. It's easy reading and really fascinating - really different perspective on the war.

My Mum loves Mary Jane Staples. There's quite a few and she's just decided to collect them so we've been scouring charity shops. They've had a load new in The Works too. knowing my Mum, I suspect they are nice, romantic with no/little bad language or graphic sex scenes. I have to confess that war time sagas aren't quite my thing, but I was bought Annie Groves' Daughters of Liverpool and that passed the time quite nicely.

For easy reading, I find you can't beat Lyn Andrews: her books are usually based in either Liverpool or Ireland, and range in time frames from late 1800's to 2WW.

'A Moment in Time' by H E Bates, about the Battle of Britain. When I was 19, I thought it was one of the most moving books I'd ever read.

From a different angle, books by Eva Ibbotson, especially 'The Morning Gift' & 'A Song for Summer', about the period just before the war in Austria when anyone Jewish or opposed to the Nazis was trying to get out in time ? written from personal experience, I think.

When I first posted I was trying to remember a book I enjoyed years ago, - its finally come into my head
'Flowers of The Field', by Sarah Harrison and its follow up 'A Flower thats Free' - set in first WW and just after. Good relaxing read.

Georgina mentioned Margaret Mayhew - I've read "The Crew", "Our Yankees" and "Bluebirds", all by her, and can highly recommend them.

I also second Elizabeth Elgin - the quintet "I'll Bring You Buttercups", "Daisychain Summer", "Where Bluebells Chime", "Windflower Wedding" and "The Linden Walk" are all good. The first one of hers that I read was "All The Sweet Promises" - which is about three young women who meet on Glasgow station, on their way to their postings as Wrens at the naval base at Ardneavie. All her stories are lovely - tears as well as happiness, but really well told.

There's a novel by Joan Bakewell - sorry, can't remember the title, but just have a look on Amazon. It's set in the Second World War, and features some good female characters. It's an easy read, but also intelligently written (which you would expect from Joan Bakewell I guess).

Two recently published books about ww2 which I enjoyed:

Nourishment by Gerard Woodward - a pow asks his wife to send him a "dirty" letter
22 Britannia Road by Amanda HodgKinson- about a polish couple being reunited in Ipswich after the war with flashbacks to their war stories

Also have always loved London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins published in 1945

How about my 2 favourite Barbaras . . .

Barbara Comyns is good for eccentric families between the wars. Tales of hardship but lightly written. Try "Our Spoons came from Woolworths"

Also Barbara Pym - she writes about a period just after WW2 and has a lot of details about parish life. Her work is a work in miniature, a bit like Jane Austen.

got a bit of girlie crush on Pym at the moment. Her work is perfect for austere times!

I love that book too, The Diary of a Provincial Lady, must read it again.

Elizabeth and her German Garden is good too.

I am half way through this Major Pettigrew and thoroughly enjoying it

The Diary of a Provincial Lady- E M Delafield. My absolute favorite book - got me through three labours and countless hours breastfeeding. It's still the book I return to when I want comfort and an easy but not too easy read.

I'm just getting to the end of The English German Girl by Jake Wallace Simons (hmm, I think)

really good book, set in the 30's and 40's Berlin & England

Mrs Miniver.

About a Boy?
Alexander McCall Smith, Adrian Mole, Perfume by Patrick Suskind?

Wartime fiction is my favourite.
Just read
The Report by Jessica Kane
My Dear I wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young (WW1)
The Distant Hours Kate Morton
Goodnight Vienna by JH Schryer.

The Francis Hancock series by Barbara Nadel is set in the Blitz
David Downing has written a series set in wartime Berlin

I have also read wartime fiction by
Margaret Mayhew
Amelia Carr
Andrew Grieg

I'm reading Elizabeth Von Armin's "The Enchanted April" at the moment. Light, witty and funny, with lots of heart. Have heard it described as Shirley Valentine set in the 1920s.

OMG Goodnight Mister Tom was published in 1981!!!! I thought it was way older than that.

So glad I have DCs to pretend to buy books for

Thank you OP for this thread which has opened my eyes to the fact that Michelle Magorian wrote loads of books. My favorite book of hers is called Back Home about a evacuee returning home from the US. It was the first book I remember getting completely lost in when I was younger.

Am off to look on Amazon - don't forget Ebay for good value books.