Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Wartime fiction recommendations

43 replies

Annunziata · 26/05/2012 22:44

Evening!

So I'm on a bit of a WW1/2 fiction kick at the moment and was wondering if anyone had any further inspiration?

I liked Atonement and Birdsong and loved Love and the Loveless and All Quiet on the Western Front.

I wasn't too keen on My Dear I Wanted To Tell You, I thought it was a bit sappy. I also couldn't get into A Farewell to Arms.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
MimsyBorogroves · 19/07/2012 16:52

Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher is my guilty pleasure.

issimma · 19/07/2012 16:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

biffnbuster · 19/07/2012 15:56

Good night Mr Tom is very good .

MooncupGoddess · 17/07/2012 13:39

Marghanita Laski's To Bed with Grand Music is a v. frank look at women in London during WW2.

Very much second The Cruel Sea and The Siege.

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 16/07/2012 22:53

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther - brilliant.

chubbleigh · 16/07/2012 14:27

For WW2 read Spike Milligan from the beginning. You get the whole war experience from the being in civvy street and getting bombed to call up and deployment in North Africa then Italy then the dark side of war and then working in the entertainment corps until after the war is over. One mans experience right through.

For the German perspective try some Heinrich Boll, I will warn you though, it was a tough read, really good but quite depressing.

elkiedee · 16/07/2012 13:52

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate for a Russian perspective on WWII

Henri Barbusse, Under Fire (WW1)

Selky · 15/07/2012 23:24

John Lawton's Troy books are good. Some are set during the war some just after. Try Blackout or Second Violin

LaVolcan · 20/06/2012 11:16

Not wartime but 1930s southern Italy - Carlo Levi's Christ Stopped at Eboli, is very good.

JoanOfNark · 19/06/2012 23:03

Love and War in the Appenines by Eric Newby is superb, Italy during WW2.
Homage to Catalonia is another favourite.

WhenDoISleep · 15/06/2012 16:57

The Broze Horseman (Paullina Simons) has been recommended by a pp and there is also a squel called Tatiana and Alexander.

Laura Wilson - Stratton's War and subsequent books in the series, if you like crime fiction

janesnowdon1 · 15/06/2012 16:47

For a suburban London viewpoint on ww2 try The Avenue and The Avenue goes to War by RF Delderfield or Nourishment by Gerard Woodward.

Saltire · 12/06/2012 17:13

The Night Watch is good too

Saltire · 12/06/2012 17:12

I read and enjoyed The Postmistress. also the potato peel pie one is good

whackamole · 07/06/2012 03:31

Tuesday's War by David Fiddimore and the others. There are five I think, ranging from just before WW2 to the late fifties.

I bloody hated Birdsong! Boring as hell, just like all his others.

macthecatsmum · 04/06/2012 19:57

Alone in Berlin-makes you question human nature.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 27/05/2012 19:24

Ooh yes to 'Parade's End' and 'A Town Like Alice.' The latter is one of my favourite books ever and I am well overdue for a re-read.

gazzalw · 27/05/2012 13:11

All Quiet on the Western Front
Birdsong

Oh DW used to be a total WW1 fiction freak and she can't remember a lot of the ones that she read but she read widely around the subject!

Tikkabillajive · 27/05/2012 13:05

Small Island by Andrea Levy
and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

cairnterrier · 27/05/2012 13:05

The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. Now out of print but had a huge number of copies printed so v easy to get in a second hand bookshop.

Quite possibly the best book I've ever read.

Original poster
Annunziata · 27/05/2012 13:00

*so. Stupid phone!

OP posts:
Original poster
Annunziata · 27/05/2012 13:00

Thanks everyone! They all look great- plenty of summer reading now!
I'll give them all a go for sure. I read Dr Zhivago when I was younger too, do I might go over that again.

OP posts:
dashoflime · 27/05/2012 09:34

I loved Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy

ninjanurse · 27/05/2012 09:34

Jackdaws by Ken Follet is a great read about female spies being sent into ocupied FRance.

Fo a slightly different take I would thoroughly recommend Sisters in Arms by NIcola Tyrer. Its a non fiction account of the British Army nurses who served in the second world war, very emotional and moving, well worth reading if you enjoy reading about that era.

notnowImreading · 27/05/2012 09:32

The Siege by Helen Dunmore - about the siege of Leningrad during WWII - is fantastic.

Swipe left for the next trending thread