- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Ebury Press; First Edition First Printing edition (29 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0091903866
- ISBN-13: 978-0091903862
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 565,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Sunday Times
"every bit as engrossing as its predecessor...Simon Garfield has edited the volume with skilful discretion"
Review
"'Snowdrops have been in flower for weeks. Violets are still waiting to bloom. Broad beans are showing their heads perkily. But I forget. We are at war. The boys in the village are leaving one by one.' Maggie Joy Blunt; 'A lovely book. It will appeal to anyone who appreciates the richness and diversity of human experience' - Tony Benn; 'I haven't read a more engrossing book in years' - John Carey, Sunday Times; 'a quite magical store of voices from another age' - Observer; 'These are invaluable records of quiet lives, sometimes despairing, often moving, occasionally bitter, frequently prescient. Occasionally they are just plain funny' - Sunday Telegraph; 'richly textured diaries... what really makes the book is the fresh light it sheds on the immediate post-war years... it is history from the other end of the telescope - what life was like on the ground' - Financial Times; 'For me the year's most compulsively readable book, a rich trove of entertainment and instruction... As five diarists candidly record their post-war experiences and reactions, social history vividly unrolls and personalities fascinatingly unfurl' - Peter Kemp, Sunday Times"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
69 of 70 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The unfolding drama of wartime life is captured faithfully in these first-hand accounts. I wonder what would be the reaction of the diarists to know that in sixty years time their submissions to Mass Observation would be printed and made into a book. I suspect they would secretly be quite pleased that their efforts would be enjoyed by future generations - a kind of immortality. I was particularly moved by Christopher Tomlin's honest descriptions of the struggle to keep his family afloat financially while coping with the anxiety and sleeplessness of incipient invasion. A different world indeed.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read each person's account seperately, as they were becoming muddled in my mind. I was struck by the differences between four of the diarists and "Eileen Potter". Why was she included I wonder? All the others had fascinating, interesting tales to tell of their ordinary lives. Hers, by comparison was very dull and was also the most incomplete. With the other four I felt I knew them and had a deep interest in how they ended up in life.
Reading the four complete diaries was an engrossing experience. How different these people were to each other and how similar they are to people today. Nothing much changes, does it? I see that there is another book just published and I shall be buying that one, too.
Reading the four complete diaries was an engrossing experience. How different these people were to each other and how similar they are to people today. Nothing much changes, does it? I see that there is another book just published and I shall be buying that one, too.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Continuing the thread begun in Hidden Lives, Simon Garfield offers selections from the Mass-Observation Project diaries of five people caught up in the preparations and then the beginning of the infamous Blitz. The uncertainty, the anger, the fear; it's all here and it leaps off of the pages in a way that keeps you turning them.
Sometimes the diarists are not particularly likeable - you encounter racism and defeatist attitudes at certain points. But that is something that makes this volume particularly interesting. Knowing that these pages are going to be read by others, the diarists are still painfully honest in their fears and their prejudices. Very enlightening, and highly recommended, especially as a companion volume to Hidden Lives.
Sometimes the diarists are not particularly likeable - you encounter racism and defeatist attitudes at certain points. But that is something that makes this volume particularly interesting. Knowing that these pages are going to be read by others, the diarists are still painfully honest in their fears and their prejudices. Very enlightening, and highly recommended, especially as a companion volume to Hidden Lives.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Eye-witness accounts
These diaries were written for a mass observation project and make compulsive reading, often contradicting official accounts. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Bullingdon
We are at War
I really enjoyed this book as it gave an insight into real peoples experience of the war on the home front. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2010 by Susan Lovatt
The war for ordinary folk
In today's world, with hindsight and our intense historical knowledge of the periods encompassing both the World Wars, we feel our knowledge is complete. Read more
Published on 7 July 2009 by Elisa Wilson
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Very involving and eye-opening view of the past from the grassroots rather than the usual historical overview. Read more
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