Wartime fiction recommendations

[Annunziata]

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.

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!

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.

Alone in Berlin-makes you question human nature.

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.

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

The Night Watch is good too

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

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

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

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

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

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

Henri Barbusse, Under Fire (WW1)

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.

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther - brilliant.

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.

Good night Mr Tom is very good .

Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher is my guilty pleasure.