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Original poster

WWII Based Books

58 replies

ritzbiscuits · 15/01/2019 08:50

I fancy reading a couple of books about WWII this year, as it's a subject I'm fascinated in.

I have 'All The Light We Cannot See' on my bookshelf unread. Can you lovely bunch recommend any others?

OP posts:
BookMeOnTheSudExpress · 15/01/2019 20:11

Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
(And shamelessly placemarking to add some books to my list!)

Seeline · 15/01/2019 20:06

I love The Avenue books by RF Delderfield. Cover WW2 in the London suburbs.
Also recommend the Kate Atkinson books mentioned upthread.

barleyreed · 15/01/2019 19:59

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, brilliant!

Steamfan · 15/01/2019 19:52

To read about the blitz try www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/

another book which is interesting ( not about the blitz) is Murder on the Home Front, by Molly Lefebure. Think it might have been a tv series as well?

ChessieFL · 15/01/2019 19:12

The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard cover WW2 - the first book starts in 1938, the second and third cover the war years, and the fourth covers the aftermath. The fifth goes into the 1950s. It’s a family saga but describes well what it was like to live through the war.

BikingBeatrix · 15/01/2019 19:09

And for non fiction you can’t go wrong with historians like Laurence Rees, Ian Kershaw, Richard Evans (might have first name wrong), Antony Beevor. There are others!

FranklinTheCat · 15/01/2019 19:00

Some great fiction suggestions here. For non-fiction, I have always loved True to Both My Selves by Katrin Fitzherbert, who grew up in Nazi Germany as the gulf of a German member of the Nazi Party and a half-German, half-British woman. Absolutely fascinating account of being a child in Nazi Germany. At the end of the war, her parents divorced and she came to the UK with her mother and brother. Really interesting in terms of identity and her feelings around this.

They're children's books but I always loved The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier and I Am David by Anne Holm - the latter is more about the aftermath of the war but both involve children travelling alone across Europe to be reunited with family members.

Helmetbymidnight · 15/01/2019 18:54

Me, me!
Suite francaise is absolutely brilliant- (and very very sad.)

Helmetbymidnight · 15/01/2019 18:53

For facts, I think ‘wartime Britain’ by Juliet Gardiner is exceptional. V readable/informative.

cortex10 · 15/01/2019 18:52

Anyone mentioned Suite Francaise yet - an all time favourite of mine (especially poignant given the author's own back-story)

BikingBeatrix · 15/01/2019 18:50

That should be ‚has a sequel‘.

Petalflowers · 15/01/2019 18:49

Farleigh Fields

In Farleigh Fields - recently read and enjoyed this book.

Children books worth reading are Dolphin Crossing and Machine Gunners.

BikingBeatrix · 15/01/2019 18:45

Another by Simon Mawer is The Glass Room. Set mostly in Czechoslovakia. I like it better than the SOE story but it’s good too.PS - the latter has a There are loads more .......

defectiveinspector · 15/01/2019 18:24

I second God in Ruins and Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson. Also Night Watch by Sarah Waters, great fictional account of ambulance drivers. Two of my fav authors.

likablum · 15/01/2019 18:16

Life after Life and A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson both have sections set during the 2nd world war. THe first one focused on the Blitz and the latter on the bombing campaigns from the POV of the pilots.

I'd love to read more about the blitz if anyone has any recommendations....sorry to hijack op!

MsForestier · 15/01/2019 18:09

Anne Seba, Les Parisiennes.

MsForestier · 15/01/2019 18:08

I've been reading into WWII too. Currently reading 'When Paris went dark' about the occupation of Paris. There's also a book about women in Paris at this time by Anne Seba

Nativityriot · 15/01/2019 18:03

Nella Last’s War is brilliant (true diary of a housewife in war in a shipbuilding district) Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden about evacuees, Goodnight Mr Tom for same.

Taytocrisps · 15/01/2019 18:01

Rosamunde Pilcher wrote a really good WWII book called 'Coming Home'.

'The Siege' by Helen Dunmore is an excellent fictional account of the siege of Leningrad.

If you want to read about the holocaust, I'd recommend 'If this is a Man' and 'The Truce' by Primo Levi. And of course, 'The Diary of Anne Frank'.

N0rdicStar · 15/01/2019 16:19

Dear Mrs Bird is an enjoyable book set in the Blitz.

Original poster
ritzbiscuits · 15/01/2019 15:44

Wow! A great list of books thanks :-)

OP posts:
Greydog · 15/01/2019 14:40

Working for Victory edited by Sue Bruley, Spitfire Women by Giles Whittell, and for a look at Russian Women pilots - Night Witches by Bruce Myles.

Greydog · 15/01/2019 14:17

Sorry didn't realise it was non fiction! The Colonel of Tamarkan, Our Uninvited Guests, Jambusters - all Julie Summers, A Life in Secrets by Sarah Helm

Greydog · 15/01/2019 14:13

Whatever you do, don't read "Mr Churchill's Secretary" - what a lot of dross, and totally inaccurate. There are apparently 3 books in the series, so she may have improved, but terrible waste of money. I liked the "Small Change" trilogy, by Jo Walton - a "what if Great Britain had surrendered" series. I really like the Philip Kerr Bertie Gunther books, which are set in Germany, and continue after the war, and the Jane Thynne series of books with Clara Vine are also good. And also the Tom Tyler series by Maureen Jennings

Tony2 · 15/01/2019 14:11

Carve Her Name With Pride.

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