War time books WW2

I am looking some books set in WW2 time. I have all the Elizabeth Elgin, Annie Groves, Lily Baxer books that are currently out there. Does anyone have authors that I need to look at?

I gather you mean ladybooks - can't help you there...

Anne Bennett for definite! I've read all of them and they're a great read, nice & gritty!

that summer by andrew greig
under an english heaven by robert radcliffe
maybe the burning blue and a pair of silver wings both by james holland
the first two stories could definitely be read by a man or women not sure if the other two would appeal to women they are all proper stories though not just tales of daring do if your a women you must read that summer

The Bronze Horseman and the rest of this whole series from this author are brilliant
EchoesWings

Goodnight Vienna: A Novel of World War IIMoonlight Over Denmark: A Novel of World War Two
Resistance
Anne baker
Bombers' Moon
Sins of Eden
Mary Jane Staples
Patterns of Shadows (based in a pow camp for the germans)
Maureen Lee
Emma Blair
Rebecca Dean (loved her books)
Lesley Pearse
Una Mary Parker(based on the Granville sisters and their experiences through the war though part of the series is based before the war started and post-war era.
Meg Henderson
Margaret Thornton
Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn though based on the first world era this book is brilliant and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Beryl matthews

There is so many I can recommend as I think I have read the majority please feel free to email me and I will recommend more.
I have just looked at your profile and have to admit you have read most of the books which I have read and I am really pleased you have enjoyed them as much as I did.

I see that you enjoyed Lily Baxter's Guernsey novel We'll Meet Again so you might like to take a look at The Collaborator - Margaret LeRoy, a slightly more literary style but a well researched novel of the period.

Older books, but I remember enjoying Elizabeth Jane Joward's Cazalet Chronicles (Starts with 'The Light Years' I think) & Mary Wesley's 'Camomile lawn'.
If you want something rather different Connie Willis' 'Blackout' and 'All Clear' go right through the war from the perspective of time travellers who get trapped in that period.

And Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky is a fabulous book. It was written during the war - so the author is writing a contemporary piece without the knowledge of how it all plays out. It's the sort of book that stays with you.

How about Lena Kennedy, have you read any of hers?
Also look at Leo's Girl.

One of the best I think is "Under an English Heaven" by Robert Radcliffe.
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" is great. Also love "Blitz Cat" by Robert Westall.
"The Novel in the Viola" was lovely by Natasha Solomons.

I highly recommend the following series of wartime novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard ---

THE CAZALET CHRONICLES
1. The Light Years
2. Marking Time
3. Confusion
4. Casting Off

Night Sky - Clare Francis

There are loads. here's a few:

The Blue Moon and also After Midnight and Night Crossing + other books - Robert Ryan
The Hidden War & other books - David Fiddimore
Alistair MacLean has written several books set during the 2WW
A Pair of Silver Wings - James Holland
That Summer - Andrew Greig
No Resistance - Evelyn Anthony
Night Sky - Clare Francis

Just received a great book today and already addicted it is called The Girl Who fell from the Sky by Simon Mawer also another one isJasmine Nights

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres (sp?)

One way to find similar books is to go onto Amazon Search, Books, above and type in Lily Baxter or one of the others. Click on one of the books that come up. Scroll half way down and there will probably be a horizontal listing of 'like' books.

Susan Elia MacNeil - Mr Churchill's Secretary

H.M.S Ulysses by Alistair Mclean, this is one of the best WW2 naval stories ever written.

All depends on what type of book you want. However, I think that books written by people who actually experienced the period they describe will often feel more authentic. I'm not talking about getting all the facts right; it's more about getting the right mood and atmosphere. No matter how good the writer, there's always something slightly artificial about "retrospective" writing. Therefore I would suggest trying authors who were actually writing during or immediately after the war; to put it bluntly, they usually know what they're talking about! Again depending on what sort of book you like, authors that spring to mind include Evelyn Waugh, H. E. Bates, Neville Shute, Graham Greene etc. For the most part they've written books that use the war as a background rather than out and out war stories. Of the latter, the previously recommended "H.M.S. Ulysses" is a very good example, although I'd suggest that for a novel about the naval warfare you'd have to go a long way to beat "The Cruel Sea". In both cases authors were able to use their own first-hand experience to make the books live.

Stormbringer (Apocalypse Then) Stormbringer examines the opening chapter of the Second World War from the slightly unique viewpoint of the man who claims to have started it. Watch out for the rest of the Apocalypse Then series of books which will portray the events of WW2 in a way unlike any other. Check out the reviews for yourself.

You could try The Cat and The Nightingale Saga - 5* reviews - four volumes so farA Week In May 1940 (The Cat & The Nightingale Saga)

Very much agree with Sou'Wester - the best books about any conflict (especially such a literally world-changing event such as World War Two) are by those who experienced it first-hand, whether as civilian or combatant. George Macdonald Fraser is better known for the Flashman books but I would unhesitatingly recommend Quartered Safe Out Here, his account of his service in the Burma campaign. It's evocative, often harrowing, deeply humane and with a cast of characters as rich as any of his novels. Also the McAuslan books, though largely set in the post-war period, have many passages which look back on his wartime service, and the campaigns of the Highland regiment he later joined. I first read them when I was 15 and constantly go back to them - they're funny, wise and often moving. Unhesitatingly recommended. As a writer I constantly aspire to being as good as GMF and if I can craft a passage or a character description that's a tenth as good as his work I consider that a pretty good day!

margaret mayhew is my favourit in this genre

I love all her work but I have to say Bluebirds is my favourite and one book which I could re-read and there is not too many books which I could say that about.

sou'wester etc, if you look at the authors the OP has enjoyed then you will see that she appears to predominatley be after romantic books with a WW2 theme, not books written by combatants etc.

Oh ME Newell, I've forgotten one of the best books there is, in my opinion, with a romantic theme about WW2.

Nevil Shute - A Town called Alice.

Also, gives you the war from a different angle rather than the European theatre.

As I said earlier, I think the person who started the thread is looking for ladybooks - ie ordinary-type relationship novels with the war just as background, not books about the conflict as such.

Have to say though, I don't entirely agree about Quartered Safe Out Here; I hope that 'as a writer' you don't attempt to imitate the long, irritating passages of supposedly 'phonetic' dialect he attributes to his comrades. I do like the Flashman books though, and I think they gain in authenticity from his war experience.