WW2
Train to Nowhere
"We were young and we were keen; Europe was in flames, and we were ready for whatever came." “I used…
1940 and the #1940Club
Hope I'm not jumping the gun here but the #1940Club starts next week and I've been gearing up and getting…
The Pineapple Party
Norman Pearson returned towards the end of January, after an absence in Spain and Portugal, bearing two bananas, two oranges…
Literal Nazis and the Retro-transing of History
Researching Marienbad and the Savoy led me to Erika Mann and all the gossip, scandal, politics, and drama of her…
Our Flag Stays Red – Communists and Snore Detectives at the Savoy
In Our Flag Stays Red (1948) Phil Piratin - the Communist Party MP for Mile End - wrote an account…
Marienbad
Every Christmas growing up my family received a greeting card from the Stingl family. I knew that my grandmother, mother,…
October , Propaganda, and Mrs. Miniver Buys the Chrysanthemums Herself
The Year Begins in October Armistead Maupin based his vignettes of gay life in 1970s San Francisco - Tales of…
All for Nothing
Hands down, this is the best book I've read all year: All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski. It's the bitter…
Evacuee Story Lines #3 Evelyn Waugh
I did, in the first weeks of the war, before I got my commission, suffer severely from 'evacuees'.- Evelyn Waugh in…
Evacuee Story Lines #2 C. S. Lewis
"What are you doing in the wardrobe?" "Narnia business" C.S."Jack" Lewis spent childhood years in a house in Belfast where…
Evacuee Story Lines #1 Nina Bawden
All our stories begin before we are born. Not Just the blue eyes or flat feet we inherit, but the…
War Souvenir
My father did not bring much back from his six years of war. He would have had his demob suit…
The Thinking
This post is in answer to the question "Operation Pied Piper: What were they thinking?" At least in terms of…
Bertie Wooster v. Christopher Robin
P.G.Wodehouse and A.A. Milne were the same age and in 1941 they were both close to 60. As young men…
What ho! George Orwell and Cancel Culture
Few things in this war have been more morally disgusting than the present hunt after traitors and Quislings. At best…