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Books set during wartime


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A few that no-one has mentioned yet

 

2nd WW

Spies - Michael Frayn

Jackdaws - Fen Follett

Charlotte Grey - Sebastian Faulks

The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass

Schindlers Ark - Thomas Kenneally

The Silver Sword - Ian Serraillier

Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian (I cried loads reading this)

 

1066

The Last English King - Julian Rathbone

 

1460 (Wars of the Roses)

Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone

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A few that no-one has mentioned yet

2nd WW

Spies - Michael Frayn

Jackdaws - Fen Follett

Charlotte Grey - Sebastian Faulks

The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass

Schindlers Ark - Thomas Kenneally

The Silver Sword - Ian Serraillier

Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian (I cried loads reading this)

1066

The Last English King - Julian Rathbone

1460 (Wars of the Roses)

Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone

 

I think that might be Ken Follett!

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I saw the film "Goodbye Mr Tom" and the Beach Holiday scene was not in it.

One big mistake. War broke out in September. We saw Mr Tom outside when War was announced there were Swifts calling overhead. Swifts migrate in Early August back to Africa and would not be calling overhead in September. Also Collard Doves are seen on the garden wall when the boy is building the shelter. Collard Doves did not arrive in the UK until 1956.

 

What about the Foyles War book series?

 

Has Goodbye Mr Chips been mentioned? James Hiltons book is very thin so I did not buy it the other day, I expected a gret ole book to get into

Edited by Colin Jacobs
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A while ago I read After Midnight by Robert Ryan, a book based on truth,and thoroughly enjoyed it, it was quite suspenseful.

 

This is a synopsis off Amazon

 

In 1964, a young Australian girl, Linda Carr, is trying to track down the wreckage of the Liberator bomber in which her father died when it crashed in Northern Italy in 1944 during World War Two. She employs the help of motorcycle TT racer Jack Kirby, a man who has his own inner demons to combat. He was a Mosquito fighter pilot during the war and experienced at first hand the astonishing courage of the Italian partisans in the face of Nazi brutality. Jack is keen to find one of the partisans, a woman with a past as dark as the secrets she still holds close to her heart. What Jack and Linda discover in their journey deep into an uncharted Italian mountain region is more dangerous and life-changing than they could ever have imagined.

 

Both time periods are covered in this book.

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How about Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks? It was recommmended to me by a woman I worked with. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but given that it has gotten a lot of good reviews, I'm thinking of revisiting it.

 

There's a reason you didn't particularly enjoy it. It's not a good book [imo] highly recommend anyone interested in war books should try all quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque. Amazing book. You'll understand when you read it.

Edited by Kell
Took out capitalisation on every word.
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Just resurrecting this thread on wartime stories. I read a lot of wartime stories especially WW1 and WWII books and have to say my favourite has to be Fair Stood the Wind for France by H E Bates (mentioned fleetingly on here earlier). It is a wonderful work of literature set around the time of the French occupation and an English airman's experience of trying to escape. Well worth reading.

 

If you like H E Bates (he is one of my all time favourite writers) you may like two of his books set in wartime Burma - the Purple Plain and the Jacaranda Tree - evocative, sensual books. He knew the area well.

 

All quite different to his Ma and Pa Larkin books.:welcomebcf:

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Some war fiction i've read and enjoyed.................

 

Night of Flames by Douglas W Jacobson Painting a vivid and terrifying picture of war-torn Europe during World War II, this tale chronicles the lives of Anna, a Krakow University professor, and her husband Jan, a Polish cavalryman. After they are separated and forced to flee occupied Poland, Anna soon finds herself caught up in the Belgian Resistance, while Jan becomes embedded in British Intelligence efforts to contact the Resistance in Poland. He soon realises that he must seize this opportunity to search for his lost wife, Anna.

 

Winston's War by Michael Dobbs Insight into the workings of power comes a compelling new novel exploring Winston Churchill's remarkable journey from the wilderness to No 10 Downing Street at the beginning of World War II. Saturday 1 October 1938. Two men meet. One is elderly, the other in his twenties. One will become the most revered man of his time, and the other known as the greatest of traitors. Winston Churchill met Guy Burgess at a moment when the world was about to explode. Now in is astonishing new novel, Michael Dobbs throws brilliant fresh light upon Churchill's relationship with the Soviet spy and the twenty months of conspiracy, chance and outright treachery that were to propel Churchill from outcast to messiah and change the course of history.

 

The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat A maritime adventure originally published in 1951. Set in the Second World War, two ships and their crews of about a hundred and fifty men are involved in defending Atlantic convoys against impossible odds.

 

Das Boot by Lothat Gunther Buchheim

It is autumn 1941 and a German U-boat commander and his crew set out on yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Over the coming weeks they must brave the stormy waters of the Atlantic in their mission to seek out and destroy British supply ships. But the tide is beginning to turn against the Germans in the war for the North Atlantic - their targets now travel in convoys, fiercely guarded by Royal Navy destroyers, and when contact is finally made the hunters rapidly become the hunted. As the U-boat is forced to hide beneath the surface of the sea a cat-an-mouse game begins, where the increasing claustrophobia of the submarine becomes an enemy just as frightening as the depth charges that explode around it. Written by a survivor of the U-boat fleet - of the 40,000 men who served on German submarines, 30,000 never returned - DAS BOOT is a psychological drama merciless in its intensity, and a classic novel of World War II.

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I've always liked war stories, although not generally ones based on fighting with lots of battle scenes. When I was younger I read things like When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, and Carrie's War. Now I like Birdsong by Sebastian Fawkes, and Pat Baker's Regeneration Trilogy, things like those

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If anyone asked me, I'd say I don't read war books, but actually sitting down and thinking about it, I can see from my reading lists and bookshelves that I've actually read quite a few. I've read some that have already been mentioned in the thread, but on top of that there are:

 

The Final Reckoning by Sam Bourne

Fast paced thriller, great holiday reading

 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

I recommend this to everyone I know - great fun read, but with poignant stories and moments (read full review here)

 

Restless by William Boyd

Grown up daughter unexpectedly learns of her mothers involvement in WWII.

 

Also, a couple of children's books:

 

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Beautiful, moving tale of two brothers in WWI

 

Once by Morris Gleitzman

Absolutely brilliant book about a boy who lives in an orphanage in Poland, but is convinced his Jewish parents are still alive, and flees the Nazi soldiers who arrive at the orphanage to go in search of his parents. Very highly recommended.

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And so my list of recommendations begins...

I love war stories, especially ones about WWII. I have this morbid fascination with the Holocaust. It started when a friend of mine let me borrow Night by Elie Wiesel. I read it when I was taking a class on World History, so the two of them combined just sparked my love for World Wars.

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I actually tend to avoid war-time books as I am hypersensitive and easily upset; however recently I have adored Marcus Suzak's "The Book Thief", and (not quite as recently but in a very similar childlike-but-not vein) Judith Kerr's "When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit". I'd reccoment these to anyone, especially anyone interested in the broad themes but too weak to stomach adult-sized descriptions of destruction.

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Favourite war-related non-fiction:

Franklin and Winston, an up-close-and-personal look at two of the three world leaders during WWII.

 

Fiction:

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson, along with his WWI trilogy, Goshawk Squadron, War Story, and Hornet's Sting which now lists for $100+ on several used-book sites. Makes me wonder why Robinson's publisher doesn't cash in and reissue the book, a gritty and realistic story about a fictional British squadron based in France during the Great War. Robinson's flying and battle scenes are gripping and enlightening, and the paradoxes of war are reminiscent of Catch-22.

 

I first read Piece of Cake twenty years ago. I read it again recently and found I enjoyed it as much, or even more, than I did the first time. That's often a worry when you remember loving a book, then finding you've outgrown it when you read it again many years later.

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day

I haven't read this but it is on my TBR list.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum takes place during WWII. Has anyone read this? The reviews are great.

 

I've read it and I highly recommend it. It's quite shocking and raw at times, though, but I don't think there's any other way to interpret what certain women did/went through during those terrible times. It's a very well-written novel that stays with you for quite a while after reading it. :lol:

 

I love love stories set during wartimes. Or any book that gives an account of what people went through. Battle scenes doesn't very much interest me, I'm after emotion. Those Who Save Us (already mentioned), Love Without Resistance by Gilles Rozier, The Visible World by Mark Slouka and The Parrot Cage by Daphne Wright are among my favourites.

Oh, and I almost forgot Atonement by Ian McEwan.

Edited by Scarlette
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