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As you'll see from the books this month, I've been on a bit of a Second World War kick.
I can't really explain why, I'm not normally much of a recent history fan. And actually the second one, about the Home Guard, was read this month because I borrowed it from my local library so needed to read it before returning it. Had it been a book I'd bought it would no doubt still be sitting unread on the bookcase.
I did cheat a tiny bit and still write it in my "to be read" section in my planner, just so I could have the pleasure of ticking it off. I also returned it to the library before taking a photo for the blog.
Spy Princess
I started reading about the women agents in SOE around the same time. Obviously there were far fewer of them than male agents, but they did do important work. I've always found it interesting as a lot of my school education on the war was about things like international relations or the Home Front. The activities of individual agents are a lot more personal, which is the aspect of history I like the most.
Spy Princess looks at one of these female agents in particular; Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan. Her father was a descendant of Tipu Sultan, and she was raised in France with her siblings until the outbreak of the war forced them to flee to England.
Despite being raised as a pacifist Noor decided to join the women's armed forces, and from there was recruited in to SOE due to her skill at wireless communications. Sadly she didn't live to see the end of the war as she was captured in Paris and ultimately executed.
I really enjoyed this book as the author not only looked back through surviving SOE documents but also spoke to Noor's surviving family. I already knew a lot about her activities in SOE, but this gave a much more personal account of her childhood and adolescence. I came away feeling like I knew a lot more about her, and although I've always been impressed by her bravery and actions in the war I feel like this book really brought it home. Definitely one to read if you want to learn more about women's roles as agents!
The Real 'Dad's Army'
I picked this up in my local library as my grandfather, who was in a protected occupation, was in the Home Guard in Northumberland. Apart from watching bits of "Dad's Army" over the years, I actually know very little about Home Guard activities.
This was an interesting read, interspersed with the writer's drawings and diagrams. As he was living in Kent his area witnessed a huge amount of plane activity, and I was especially taken by how frequently air raid warnings apparently went off after the planes had already been over, at least at the start.
In the introduction the editor noted how little we learn about the people in Rodney's life. His wife, for example, is referred to repeatedly but you never really get an idea of what she is like as a person, or of the conversations they might be having. I also found it interesting how much the diary is focused on things like the air raids, with the timings of warnings noted precisely, but there is very little reference to things like the impact of rationing.
This is a very good read, but the thing it was missing was a list of recurring people. I don't know if this is because the editor wasn't able to properly identify many of them (in the diary they're referred to primarily by surnames or occasionally nicknames), but it would have been very helpful as I was often confused as to who was who and had nothing to refer back to.
If you want an alternative diary to learn more about the home front then this is one to try!
War in Val d'Orcia
I've read another Italian war diary before, [name here], and I really struggled with it. It was a translation, so could be a bit of a clunky read, and there were lots of references to political groups that I kept forgetting which one was which.
Luckily I found "War in Val d'Orcia" to be a much easier read. If it wasn't written in English originally then I think the writer must have translated her own words herself so it's an easier read. I also found it was far more personal. [Name] wasn't involved in an anti-Fascist groups, she and her husband took in over 20 evacuees and had their own two small daughters, so a lot of the focus is on their daily lives. They help partisans hiding in the local forests, and any escaped prisoners of war who find their way to them. But there's no need to keep track of who's who as the "cast" is much smaller.
This was a really interesting read and gave me a much better insight into the lived experience of Italian during the latter part of the war, and how similar their experiences of bombing, rationing and shortages were to British civilians. The big difference though was that Italy was occupied by the Germans and became an active warzone with multiple battlelines drawn across the country. I think Britain was quite lucky to not experience the same thing!
1 comment:
These sound really interesting! I’ll have to check them out. I always love new recommendations, although at the length my TBR list is right now, they’re almost detrimental to my mental health lol
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