The most recommended books on the London Blitz

Lee was the popular, well-connected military attaché in the U.S. Embassy in London. A staunch supporter of U.S. aid for Britain, he played an important role in preparing for America’s entry into the war. During the Blitz, he castigated American correspondents who described London as “devastated” by the German bombing campaign. “London is not devastated, and if you want one soldier’s opinion, it will not be devastated,” he told them. His diary reflects his determination to counter the defeatist predictions of Joseph Kennedy, who had served as U.S. ambassador in London until 1940.

A love letter to books. And a nod to classic literature.

August, 1939, London prepares for war, as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Primrose Hill is a dusty old bookshop in the heart of London. Grace Bennett, the main character, finds herself working there and discovers community through the hardships of war. Again, impeccable research.

When an uncle – presumed killed in the Blitz – turns up after serving nearly forty years in an Irish prison, he tells a story about having been one of the thieves of Picasso paintings stolen from a diamond merchant in Antwerp in 1939. At clever work in this tale are forgers, revolutionaries, and family members out to recover their treasure or their family honor. I have known for a long time that what I love most – more than mere murder mysteries – are what I call novels with murder. For me, the story has to be a beautifully realized bit of writing, and a murder is just one feature of it.

I have always loved Goddard’s style, which is both elegant and readable. And murder, more than a puzzle, becomes a natural part of the lives he depicts. Known for his plot twists, he sets me down in… show more.

We’re all familiar with wartime images of young evacuees gathered together on railway stations. But over fifty percent of children were not evacuated from British cities, and it is they that Penny Starns has studied. Once we get past the mothers’ ‘keep or send’ moral dilemma, there are the issues of discipline, education, health, food, and psychological development to consider. Starns takes these subjects chapter by chapter, relating stories of disease, poverty, criminality, and terror (including one child who spent the night in a shelter within reach of an unexploded bomb). These tales she counterpoints with examples of unexpectedly increasing emotional and physical wellbeing amongst some of the stay-behinds. This is an important record of the experiences of a demographic that war histories often ignore.

It’s too easy, in time travel fantasies, to imagine that you would feel a step above the people around you... that you alone know what’s coming, and just, in general, have your advanced-future-person perspective on the world. That’s not how history should feel. The All Clear series’s time-traveling historians arrive to observe the London Blitz and have that comforting certainty ripped out from underneath them. They’re left lost, alone, and isolated in a well-painted portrait of a world on the edge of collapse.

John Wyndham changed my life. I read Wyndham’s The Night of the Triffids when I was thirteen: it ignited a craving of my own to write apocalyptic novels like Wyndham.

This wonderful biography of Wyndham charts his path from awkward, maybe even almost otherworldly boy to the maelstrom of World War 2, where he was plunged into battles to free Europe from the Nazis. These harrowing experiences surely shaped his fiction, where civilization could be torn asunder in a heartbeat. Binns’ biography is detailed, sympathetic, and deeply insightful. It embraces his personal life as much as it describes his extraordinary success as a writer.

If I wrote a love letter to Wyndham, I’d be a proud man if I could pen something half as good as Binns' Hidden Wyndham.

I am a great fan of historical fiction and stories set in WW1 and WW2.

This book is an enthralling novel set in World War 2 and tells the story of an English/Canadian Airforce pilot and a Norwegian female spy who meet during the London blitz, quickly fall in love, and then are torn apart a few days later to fight their own wars in different parts of the world. 

Billy Coke and Isle Magnusson’s stories are a completely different take on the usual WW2 stories, and I particularly enjoyed reading about a lesser-known history of the decadent days of pre-war Berlin, and then later life under German occupation in Oslo. Billy and Isle’s stories will linger in your heart long after you reach the last page.

More importantly, this book gives its readers a richer understanding of a generation that lived and died for a better future for us… show more.

I like stories of everyday people dealing with WWII, and this is it. London during the Blitz is a difficult place to find love, but Maisie and Cal are trying.

The book is well-researched and well-written, making readers feel the daily struggle of staying safe and the terror of night raids. I loved the hobby shop and would've liked to have seen more of the stock and customers, but the main characters are compelling enough that you root for them from page one.

Clever of the author to tease the reader at the end...no spoilers! This is the first in a series, and I can't wait for the next novel to come out!

An accumulation of memories haunt and inform Noonday, a novel that stands alone as the third in a trilogy spanning both world wars. I particularly love Barker’s avoidance of sentimentality. She is an honest writer who digs deep and gives no easy solutions as she follows a cast of characters who originally met as students at the Slade School of Art in London. Elinor, who is central, still suffers from the death of her brother Toby in the Great War. Barker’s skillful evocation of the past gives weight and resonance to every word, reminding the reader of the increasing complexity of character formation with life’s most intense and sometimes tragic experiences. 

I love how Rumer Godden’s novels pair lyrical writing with complex characters. An Episode of Sparrows is no exception.  

The novel takes place in post-WWII London, where Lovejoy, a young girl whose mother has pawned her off on strangers, plants a hidden garden in the shelter of a bombed-out church. Lovejoy is both fierce and tender in her desperation to have something to believe in, and Godden’s fluid storytelling carries the reader along as Lovejoy and the local children find sanctuary in their unsanctioned garden.

This moving novel shows that gardens can be the catalyst for friendship and community. It also shows that in hard times, the act of creating something beautiful is often the very thing that helps us survive.