World War Two
Articles of War
In this excerpt from his autobiography Signatures: Literary Encounters of a Lifetime, David Pryce-Jones meets the survivors of the 20th century
Did George Formby and Gracie Fields really help Britain out of the Depression?
Cheer Up! British Musical Films, 1929-1945 by Adrian Wright reviewed
A passionate wartime love story is rescued from oblivion
Love in the Blitz: The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front by Eileen Alexander reviewed
A generation unmasked
The furor over the maskless VE celebration highlights the forces driving this moment of national fear and submission
Iceland and the story of a very British invasion
The British diplomats explained that they were terribly sorry about the inconvenience
Is baking and watching Netflix really comparable to being bombed?
It doesn’t take ‘Blitz spirit’ to hunker down at home
Ghost riders in the sky
In Lavenham, American history is unlocked by a pint of fine English ale
Does COVID-19 mean socialism or social collapse?
The four stabilizers between us and disaster
What Blitz spirit? The Brits are showing a deep shelter mentality
Social distancing doesn’t do much for an esprit de corps
The online museums you’ll never want to leave
If the blackout warden didn’t notice a sliver of light at your window, a neighbor would soon tell him
The British Far East campaign in WWII is the new focus of Daniel Todman’s comprehensive history
Britain’s War: A New World 1942–1947 by Daniel Todman reviewed
For Jews in Occupied France, survival was a matter of luck
House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a 20th-Century Jewish Family by Hadley Freeman reviewed
Isolation forces us to work out what really matters
In tough times, people often discover their dauntlessness
How government should respond
The US government should establish a Health Finance Corporation
Hiding from the Gestapo in plain sight in Berlin
When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains by Ariana Neumann reviewed
Was Dresden a war crime?
The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 by Sinclair McKay reviewed
Entente hostile: China, Japan and Korea
Three Tigers, One Mountain: A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea and Japan by Michael Booth reviewed
The Italian job
A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism by Caroline Moorehead reviewed
What it means to be descended from Holocaust survivors
The one I fixate on is Ryszard, the child of my mother’s uncle. He died aged nine. That’s the age of my own eldest kid
A soldier’s legacy: how a baby’s cry saved a family
My father would admit that he had helped someone, but would never say more
A chance encounter with a butterfly-catching Nazi
A Slightly Foxed Editions feature
Love and War in the Apennines
On Eric Newby’s wartime memoir: A Slightly Foxed books essay
The hunt for the Führer
How Hugh Trevor-Roper unraveled the mystery of Hitler’s death: A Slightly Foxed books essay
The Lady with the Limp: homage to the one-legged Virginia Hall, SOE’s ‘most dangerous’ agent
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell reviewed
Richard Sorge: the Soviet Union’s master spy
An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent by Owen Matthews reviewed
