A HUGE welcome to the many new joiners who read about our book club on Substack (here, in case you missed it). I’m looking forward to getting to know you and introducing you to the rest of our wonderful group!
Please join our July discussion thread by clicking the button below and sharing your recommendations for:
Anything you’ve loved this July.
Anything to do with The Second World War, in particular to do with The Home Front - tying in with this month’s pick, Saplings by Noel Streatfeild.
The live discussion takes place TODAY at 1.30-2pm, but if that time doesn’t work for you, please feel free to share your contribution whenever you like.
I’m kicking things off with one of my favourite books of all time:
A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam. This slim novel is the funny and evocative first novel from the author of Old Filth. It’s about young Jessica Vye, growing up in wartime Yorkshire and determined to be a writer, as she copes with the trials of school, tonsillitis, an eccentric family and many wartime deprivations… It features perhaps the world’s worst date – after holding sweaty hands on the train, a bomb goes off!
Have you read it? What did you make of it?
Join the thread to share and discover more great books about The Second World War. I’m longing to know your recommendations!
Thank you for including me in your July book announcement. I have just bought it for my Kindle. I'm brand new to your club. I live in Stuart, Florida, USA, but this summer, we are in our RV exploring the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. While searching for a new book, I found your blog & picked up one of your prior recommendations in a tiny, gorgeous western town called Red Lodge at the foot of the Beartooth mountain range on the Montana-Wyoming border. We drove up 10,000 feet and saw mountain goats. In ND and SD, we went through a herd of bison. So exciting. I want to find a gripping western tale for your club out here, written by a local, if possible. If perhaps one day you would be interested.
In the meantime, I tell you about my summer adventure because of my love for animals and history, and reading, of course. Particularly American history, WWI, WWII, and our country’s revolutionary and civil wars. (I also enjoy your country’s storied history with Ireland and your kings and queens.) So, regarding your quest for WWII stories, have you read Elephant Company by Vicki Constantine Croke? It is a beautiful non-fiction tale that reads like a novel. If your readers love WWII books, animals, or heroism, this book is a winner! Easy to read, thoughtful and historic, learn a lot about WWII, and fall in love with one of the closest loving and communicative animals to humans.
Hi, I’ve just joined so I was out of the loop of this month’s recommendation topic/book, but one July book was Timothy Egan’s “A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith.” I’m a long distance walker so am curious about this hiking route. To counterbalance that creative non-fiction book, I just finished Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy novel, “Ninth House.” I’m a voracious reader of many genres so am looking forward to hearing about books to add to my “to read” list. Regarding WWII books, one of my recent favourites is “All the Light We Cannot See,” by Anthony Doerr. My fingers are crossed the upcoming adaptation is as powerful as the novel.
I also just read Appointment with Venus by Jerrard Tickell set during the Nazi occupation of Sark and recently republished by Manderley Press. And there’s a b&w movie of the same name made in 1951 and available on YouTube.
Jul 21, 2023·edited Jul 21, 2023Liked by Emily Rhodes
Good afternoon and thank you for the welcome. I no longer live in London, but I still love books and I've been reading through the suggestions.
Regarding some WW2 books - too many to list, but here are two I enjoy that nobody mentioned: Marc Bloch's Strange Defeat, a non-fiction book he wrote just after the fall of France in 1940; and Flight to Arras (Pilote de guerre), by Antoine de Saint Exupéry - a slightly novelised account of his French Air Force Reconnaissance work during the Battle of France in 1940, written after he arrived in New York in 1941 and first serialised in English in The Atlantic Monthly magazine in early 1942 (it became part of the expatriate French effort to persuade the American public that entering the war in Europe was a worthy cause). Both were written when France was occupied, and by authors who never saw the end of the war - or in Bloch's case, never saw the Normandy D-Day - as both died fighting for France (St Ex left NYC in 1943 and was reintegrated in his Reconnaissance unit of the French Air Force - as attached to the US Air Force - in North Africa, then Corsica.)
July is a busy work month for me, so I tend to read light stuff when I have the time - I am enjoying Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, space opera with derring-do and political shenanigans, witty and well-written. I'm also reading some of the short stories in James Tiptree Jr's Her Smoke Rose Forever - they are very good! (Tiptree was the pseudonym for Alice Bradley Sheldon). I'm going through a science fiction period.
Hi! New here. I recently read All The Light We Cannot See, which I am sure is not new to you, but I loved it. I also read Lilac Girls which was such an interesting take, viewed from the eyes of 3 different woman.
Did I misunderstand that the discussion is online just now? None of the links/emails lead to me to Zoom or other online live discussion. I seem to have wasted my time trying to find it. Will there be a recording? My first attempt to comment disappeared when I looked back to previous messages. My comment would be how much I prefer works written during the second world war when no one knew the outcome or how long it would take. I’m afraid I don’t think I can go through 88 previous comments so probably others have suggested titles. Thank you. Sorry to miss you. Best wishes, Barbara
Thumbs up for Iris Origo (stood outside her old house Tuscany a few years ago), Suite Francaise and A Few Eggs and No Oranges! For a totally different perspective A German Officer in Occupied Paris, the war journals 1941-45 of Ernst Junger is completely fascinating.
Does anyone remember A Family at War, an ITV series about a family in wartime Liverpool? It ran in the early 70s and I found it completely compelling. Apparently it is still available on a streaming platform somewhere. That reminds me that I watched recently the 1973 Play for Today version of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont with Celia Johnson is on YouTube - it's great and captures the book's ambience perfectly.
I loved reading Astrid Lindgren's diaries, when they were published a while ago: fascinating view of the war from Sweden. And very much about life at home as well.
Fran - Persephone Books have published so many incredible books.... but are there any books that engage with WW2 that you wish you published but someone else beat you to it?
I’m reading Alexander Baron’s From the City, from the Plough’ about the Fufth Battalion waiting to embark for Normandy in January 1944 - I’m only about half way through. Found it difficult at first, there were so many voices and not much seemed to be happening but gradually an amazing picture of war time army life started to emerge. They are in the boats now…
I'm not actually the biggest fan which puts me in the minority but Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, like Saplings, deals with an big upper-middle-class family navigating WW2 - they definitely hooked me on some level as I remember reading them all consecutively despite not adoring them which was an odd reading experience.
I really enjoy the romance novels written by Noel Streatfeild as 'Susan Scarlett' which have been reissued by Furrowed Middlebrow. I just read the wartime-set 'Summer Pudding' (1943), as a palette cleanser following the emotional devastation of Saplings. My favourite of the Susan Scarlett books so far is the pre-war 'Clothes Pegs.' Also published by Furrowed Middlebrow, I have A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell on my shelf, which is a Blitz memoir and I believe one of their more sombre offerings.
Thanks for the offer to share anything cultural! Quite the challenge I might add.
I will start with the film, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. Apologies it is not WWII specific, as it has its setting in Afghanistan, 2018.
That said I found it to be a surreal (in the most traditional sense of the word) and mostly accurate account of the strength of bond between coalition military in AFG and their interpreters.
I’d highly recommend this as a film you’ll want to fully focus on.
Hi, everyone! Delighted that our book 'Saplings' was this month's pick. Isn't it marvellous? And so many fascinating themes.... explored in a number of other Persephone books too, of course...
Anyone late to the thread, please feel free to post your recommendations anytime! We'd love to know them.
Thank you for including me in your July book announcement. I have just bought it for my Kindle. I'm brand new to your club. I live in Stuart, Florida, USA, but this summer, we are in our RV exploring the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. While searching for a new book, I found your blog & picked up one of your prior recommendations in a tiny, gorgeous western town called Red Lodge at the foot of the Beartooth mountain range on the Montana-Wyoming border. We drove up 10,000 feet and saw mountain goats. In ND and SD, we went through a herd of bison. So exciting. I want to find a gripping western tale for your club out here, written by a local, if possible. If perhaps one day you would be interested.
In the meantime, I tell you about my summer adventure because of my love for animals and history, and reading, of course. Particularly American history, WWI, WWII, and our country’s revolutionary and civil wars. (I also enjoy your country’s storied history with Ireland and your kings and queens.) So, regarding your quest for WWII stories, have you read Elephant Company by Vicki Constantine Croke? It is a beautiful non-fiction tale that reads like a novel. If your readers love WWII books, animals, or heroism, this book is a winner! Easy to read, thoughtful and historic, learn a lot about WWII, and fall in love with one of the closest loving and communicative animals to humans.
Happy and adventurous reading to you!
Hi, I’ve just joined so I was out of the loop of this month’s recommendation topic/book, but one July book was Timothy Egan’s “A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith.” I’m a long distance walker so am curious about this hiking route. To counterbalance that creative non-fiction book, I just finished Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy novel, “Ninth House.” I’m a voracious reader of many genres so am looking forward to hearing about books to add to my “to read” list. Regarding WWII books, one of my recent favourites is “All the Light We Cannot See,” by Anthony Doerr. My fingers are crossed the upcoming adaptation is as powerful as the novel.
I also just read Appointment with Venus by Jerrard Tickell set during the Nazi occupation of Sark and recently republished by Manderley Press. And there’s a b&w movie of the same name made in 1951 and available on YouTube.
Good afternoon and thank you for the welcome. I no longer live in London, but I still love books and I've been reading through the suggestions.
Regarding some WW2 books - too many to list, but here are two I enjoy that nobody mentioned: Marc Bloch's Strange Defeat, a non-fiction book he wrote just after the fall of France in 1940; and Flight to Arras (Pilote de guerre), by Antoine de Saint Exupéry - a slightly novelised account of his French Air Force Reconnaissance work during the Battle of France in 1940, written after he arrived in New York in 1941 and first serialised in English in The Atlantic Monthly magazine in early 1942 (it became part of the expatriate French effort to persuade the American public that entering the war in Europe was a worthy cause). Both were written when France was occupied, and by authors who never saw the end of the war - or in Bloch's case, never saw the Normandy D-Day - as both died fighting for France (St Ex left NYC in 1943 and was reintegrated in his Reconnaissance unit of the French Air Force - as attached to the US Air Force - in North Africa, then Corsica.)
July is a busy work month for me, so I tend to read light stuff when I have the time - I am enjoying Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, space opera with derring-do and political shenanigans, witty and well-written. I'm also reading some of the short stories in James Tiptree Jr's Her Smoke Rose Forever - they are very good! (Tiptree was the pseudonym for Alice Bradley Sheldon). I'm going through a science fiction period.
Thanks for all the recommendations. One lifetime is not enough…
And a couple of my favourites set in the years leading up to WW2 and the rise of fascism in Italy:
Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
And that perfect gem:
Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
🤦♀️ No wonder I just kept going round in circles. I must do better in future. Sorry
Hi! New here. I recently read All The Light We Cannot See, which I am sure is not new to you, but I loved it. I also read Lilac Girls which was such an interesting take, viewed from the eyes of 3 different woman.
When do you pick a new book?
Do you know Handheld Press’s “where stands a wingèd sentry” by MargareKennedy? And the books of Frances Faviell?
Ancient being the right word!
I also just wanted to mention a few great new books I've reviewed over the past couple of weeks:
Thank you to everyone else who has joined so far:
Mari
Julia
Bob
Michael
Barbara
Wonderful to have your thoughts and recommendations.
Hi Emily,
Did I misunderstand that the discussion is online just now? None of the links/emails lead to me to Zoom or other online live discussion. I seem to have wasted my time trying to find it. Will there be a recording? My first attempt to comment disappeared when I looked back to previous messages. My comment would be how much I prefer works written during the second world war when no one knew the outcome or how long it would take. I’m afraid I don’t think I can go through 88 previous comments so probably others have suggested titles. Thank you. Sorry to miss you. Best wishes, Barbara
Thank you so much Fran for sharing your expertise with the group. I expect we will all go straight to Persephone Books for our summer reading!!
I would love to give another shout out here for a book totally not to do with WW2, but just published:
Attention Seekers by Emma Brankin, one of our walkers. It was wonderful to see some of you at her book launch the other evening.
Fran - final question for you:
And it's a hard one...
A few minutes left...
Oh, and Nella Last's wartime diaries and the TV drama with Victoria Wood - absolutely wonderful.
Thumbs up for Iris Origo (stood outside her old house Tuscany a few years ago), Suite Francaise and A Few Eggs and No Oranges! For a totally different perspective A German Officer in Occupied Paris, the war journals 1941-45 of Ernst Junger is completely fascinating.
Does anyone remember A Family at War, an ITV series about a family in wartime Liverpool? It ran in the early 70s and I found it completely compelling. Apparently it is still available on a streaming platform somewhere. That reminds me that I watched recently the 1973 Play for Today version of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont with Celia Johnson is on YouTube - it's great and captures the book's ambience perfectly.
Does anyone have any great TV recs about the Second World War?
I loved reading Astrid Lindgren's diaries, when they were published a while ago: fascinating view of the war from Sweden. And very much about life at home as well.
Fran - Persephone Books have published so many incredible books.... but are there any books that engage with WW2 that you wish you published but someone else beat you to it?
I’m reading Alexander Baron’s From the City, from the Plough’ about the Fufth Battalion waiting to embark for Normandy in January 1944 - I’m only about half way through. Found it difficult at first, there were so many voices and not much seemed to be happening but gradually an amazing picture of war time army life started to emerge. They are in the boats now…
I'm going to list here a few excellent novels that have WW2 going on in the background:
Fran - we love Persephone Books in their smart grey jackets. Have any of them been adapted to films that you'd particularly recommend?
I'm not actually the biggest fan which puts me in the minority but Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, like Saplings, deals with an big upper-middle-class family navigating WW2 - they definitely hooked me on some level as I remember reading them all consecutively despite not adoring them which was an odd reading experience.
I really enjoy the romance novels written by Noel Streatfeild as 'Susan Scarlett' which have been reissued by Furrowed Middlebrow. I just read the wartime-set 'Summer Pudding' (1943), as a palette cleanser following the emotional devastation of Saplings. My favourite of the Susan Scarlett books so far is the pre-war 'Clothes Pegs.' Also published by Furrowed Middlebrow, I have A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell on my shelf, which is a Blitz memoir and I believe one of their more sombre offerings.
Thanks for the offer to share anything cultural! Quite the challenge I might add.
I will start with the film, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. Apologies it is not WWII specific, as it has its setting in Afghanistan, 2018.
That said I found it to be a surreal (in the most traditional sense of the word) and mostly accurate account of the strength of bond between coalition military in AFG and their interpreters.
I’d highly recommend this as a film you’ll want to fully focus on.
Three non-fiction works that I've loved that engage with the Second World War are:
Likewise on my shelf, waiting for me:
The Unwomanly Face of War by the Nobel Prize winner, Svetlana Alexievich. It is supposed to be absolutely brilliant – has anyone here read it?
One walker recommends:
War in Val D'Orcia by Iris Origo.
This one's sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. Anyone else here recommend it?
Another question for Fran:
Sarah says:
I really enjoyed Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s British Summer Time Begins, which is a fabulous summer read.
I am a big Ysenda MG fan - has anyone else here read her books? Terms & Conditions about life in girls' boarding schools especially good I think!
Hey Folks! Bob Marcus here. I am admittedly new to Substack and haven’t quite figured out how to navigate.
Emily, is this the “live discussion” you were referencing between 130-2?
On our walk, and on theme, Tom recommended Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky - a book that's been recommended previously too!
A few new joiners would like to recommend what they've been reading:
Hello Fran - would you like to start by suggesting a few other Persephone Books that explore life on The Home Front?
Hi, everyone! Delighted that our book 'Saplings' was this month's pick. Isn't it marvellous? And so many fascinating themes.... explored in a number of other Persephone books too, of course...
I'm thrilled to be joined by Francesca Beauman of Persephone Books, who'll be sharing her expertise - holler when you're here Fran!
Welcome to the thread everyone!