I've been watching the Masterpiece TV series, "Home Fires," which is ostensibly about the Women's Institute and WWII. Mostly it seems like a soap opera centered on a group of rural women and set in Britain at the beginning of the war. I'm only getting a vague sense of the changes in people's lives and that's mostly with men going off to war.
If this period interests you and you want to read about it from a woman's point of view, I'd highly recommend Few Eggs and No Oranges: The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45. Hodgson is pictured below. The book is another of the many excellent titles published by Persephone Press, whose London shop is pictured at the bottom.
Hodgson lived in London during the war and this is her diary — where women play a leading role. In one sense it is a long, boring book: endless bombings and destruction, shortages of every imaginable item including food, fabric, soap, coal etc. Difficulties of traveling to see family and friends. And yet, it was equally enthralling.
From the warmth and safety of my living room it was hard not to be overwhelmed with respect and admiration for the way the Brits just carried on, especially when it looked in the early days like they might be invaded and they stood alone against Hitler.
And it was hard not to compare the Londoners to the Parisians in When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 by Ronald C. Rosbottom. Their situation was unique among all the cities the Nazis captured and Parisians — mostly women and children — responded in widely differing ways. Overall this was a disturbing and demoralizing read, filled with moral ambiguity.
But both books are well-worth reading if this period interests you, especially from the point of view of women's experiences.
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