"A wonderful, heartwarming read." — Ruth Hogan, author of Keeper of Lost Things From the USA Today bestselling author of The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett comes a heartwarming story of found family, love, and making connections through books set against the bombing of London during WWII. London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn’t feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it’s time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie. In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. Willful and fearless, Hedy reminds Gertie of herself at the same age, and shows her that she can’t give up just yet. With the terrible threat of war on the horizon, the world needs people like Gertie Bingham and her bookshop. When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions of everything from Winnie the Pooh to Wuthering Heights. After all, a good book can do wonders to bolster people’s spirits, even in the most trying times. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape, and as the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses. They will need all the strength of their stories and the bonds they’ve formed to see them through to brighter days.

London, 1938. Bookseller Gertie Bingham is facing difficult times, having just lost her beloved husband, Harry, and with a lingering sadness at never having been able to have a child of her own. Struggling to face running the bookshop she and Harry opened together, Gertie is preparing to sell up and move away when she is asked if she would be willing to take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany. Gertie is unsure and when sullen teenager Hedy Fischer arrives, Gertie fears she has nothing left to give the troubled girl. But when the German bombers come and the lights go out over London, Gertie and Hedy realise that joining forces will make them stronger, and that books have the power to bring young and old together and unite a community in need in its darkest hour...[Bokinfo].

'A heart-warming tale about resilience, friendships and family, and the inestimable power of the written word' RUTH HOGAN 'A heart-warming depiction of strong female friendships tested by suffering - Annie Lyons really is the queen of the wartime saga' CLARE CHAMBERS Can two young women and one book change the course of war . . .? 1940. Whip-smart librarian Peggy Sparks is determined to make sure that her brother Joe returns from the frontline to their London home, which they share with their beloved mother and grandmother. So when she is offered a once-in-a-lifetime job at the heart of the war effort, Peggy jumps at the prospect of making a real contribution to her country. But when she finds herself working under the fanciful socialite Lady Marigold Cecily, Peggy discovers that those around her are more keen on dancing at the Café de Paris than on ending the war. Writing accounts of her daily life is the only thing keeping Peggy's hopes alive. But when she finds her inner-most thoughts accidentally published by the Ministry of Information, Peggy realises she needs Marigold's help to save her job, and to bring her brother home . . . From the author of The Air Raid Book Club comes a powerful tale of unexpected friendship, community and two remarkable women who change the course of the war. Full of heart, emotion and drama, it is the perfect uplifting story for fans of Kate Thompson and Natasha Lester. 'Annie Lyons writes with compassion and heart, leaving the reader feeling like there is always hope, even in the darkest times' KATE STOREY 'This book is a delight! A warm hug of a story with gorgeous characters who felt like friends... Loved it! KERRY BARRETT WHAT EARLY READERS ARE ALREADY SAYING ABOUT A GIRLS' GUIDE TO WINNING THE WAR: 'I loved every page of it... I found myself just wanting to get back to read it. I Iove, love, loved it' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Real reader review 'Annie Lyons writes amazing historical fiction... So many emotions, fabulous writing and a thoroughly enjoyable read!' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Real reader review 'My favourite thing about her books is the way a tight community is formed throughout the story, and they always include strong female characters both young and old. Did I mention there are libraries?' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Real reader review

This book features the design, creation and use of air raid shelters, including interviews with people who used them during the Second World War. The different types of bunkers/air raid shelters (both public and in peoples gardens) are covered and the strength and weakness of their designs discussed, using original designs and primary material. The nostalgia/social history of the book covers peoples experiences of staying in the air raid shelters. These are divided into topics, including getting to the shelters (how they reacted to the sirens or whether they just moved into the shelters, especially those in gardens, long-term), facilities, health issues, morale and safety, both real and perceived. In recent years, air raid shelters have been converted into different uses, including homes, and the book will finish with a brief chapter concerning the future and preservation of these once vital buildings.

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane F.R.S. (1892–1964) was one of the leading scientists of the twentieth century, renowned for helping, through statistical wizardry, to reconcile Darwin’s theory of natural selection with Mendel’s discovery of genes. The product of a distinguished family of scientists and public figures, “JBS” trained and influenced a swathe of students and colleagues at Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London, many of whom, such as the evolutionary theorist John Maynard Smith, went on to distinction in their own right. As a widely known left-wing “public intellectual,” Haldane gained fame as a popularizer of science and commentator on public affairs, broadcasting often on the BBC and publishing extensively in newspapers and magazines. His collections of popular scientific essays influenced a generation of upcoming scientists and remain in print today. On his death in 1964, he was accorded the rare tribute of a televised self-obituary on the BBC. Celebrated for his ability to connect seemingly disparate subjects, during the Second World War Haldane was extensively involved in scientific research to aid the British war effort. Using evidence gathered from VENONA Signals Intelligence intercepts, MI5 files, and the Haldane papers, this book reveals that Haldane was also a Soviet spy—a member of the “X Group,” an espionage ring that was run out of the Soviet Embassy in London. His interlocking associations with other spies, such as Ivor Montagu and Hans Kahle; his role as a hardline Stalinist propagandist through the onset of the Cold War; his betrayal of his colleague and friend, the Soviet geneticist Nikolai Vavilov; his long-standing support for the charlatan Soviet “scientist” Trofim D. Lysenko; and his concealed stalemate with the Communist Party of Great Britain once his ability to finesse Lysenko was extinguished, are unraveled here for the first time.

In the first half of the 20th century the possibility of flight opened up entirely new avenues of thought and exploration. In the age of H.G. Wells and Biggles, the opening up of the air to balloons and planes- the Royal Flying Corps was founded in 1912 - appealed to concepts of courage and bravery which would be both encouraged and undermined by the experiences of World War I. The sky also held new terrors for everyday people who were now within reach of an airborne enemy- these fears included the possibilities of bombing, poison gas, surveillance and social contol. This duality of fear and enthusiasm drove the Air Raid Precaution movement, while vocal elements in the press and in parliament called for radical plans to cope with apocalyptic scenarios. Here, Michele Haapamaki charts the history of flight and of war in the air in the early twentieth century, addressing the key issues of interwar historiography such as patriotism, fear, masculinity and propaganda.

Love, deception, betrayal, decisions, duty, and the truth. How did things get so complicated? The night before had been so ordinary . . . as Julie Harris played the charming socialite at another of her husband's high-society Washington parties. But that morning . . . Julie awoke to find herself a widow, forced to deal with the scandal surrounding Stewart Harris's death---and with the shocking, unsuspected secrets of his life. Now her search for the truth about her late husband has brought Julie to wartime London. Posing as an aide at the U.S. embassy, she sets out to fulfill her mission: infiltrate a radical Fascist group---a group with mysterious ties to her husband's past. As Hitler's savage air blitz against London commences, Julie finds herself swept into a whirlwind of clashing images---of glittering parties set against the firestorm of night bombings, and of treachery covered by a veneer of smiles and fair words. In a world where nothing is as it seems, and where the best of intentions can inspire the worst of actions, whom can Julie trust? One man may hold the answer, and with it, hope---not only amid war-torn London, but in the face of Julie's private struggle.

In the early twentieth century, the new technology of flight changed warfare irrevocably, not only on the battlefield, but also on the home front. As prophesied before 1914, Britain in the First World War was effectively no longer an island, with its cities attacked by Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers in one of the first strategic bombing campaigns. Drawing on prewar ideas about the fragility of modern industrial civilization, some writers now began to argue that the main strategic risk to Britain was not invasion or blockade, but the possibility of a sudden and intense aerial bombardment of London and other cities, which would cause tremendous destruction and massive casualties. The nation would be shattered in a matter of days or weeks, before it could fully mobilize for war. Defeat, decline, and perhaps even extinction, would follow. This theory of the knock-out blow from the air solidified into a consensus during the 1920s and by the 1930s had largely become an orthodoxy, accepted by pacifists and militarists alike. But the devastation feared in 1938 during the Munich Crisis, when gas masks were distributed and hundreds of thousands fled London, was far in excess of the damage wrought by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941, as terrible as that was. The knock-out blow, then, was a myth. But it was a myth with consequences. For the first time, The Next War in the Air reconstructs the concept of the knock-out blow as it was articulated in the public sphere, the reasons why it came to be so widely accepted by both experts and non-experts, and the way it shaped the responses of the British public to some of the great issues facing them in the 1930s, from pacifism to fascism. Drawing on both archival documents and fictional and non-fictional publications from the period between 1908, when aviation was first perceived as a threat to British security, and 1941, when the Blitz ended, and it became clear that no knock-out blow was coming, The Next War in the Air provides a fascinating insight into the origins and evolution of this important cultural and intellectual phenomenon, Britain's fear of the bomber.

First published in 2004. Consisting of both shorter pieces and reprints of entire books, this set restores to circulation a number of key texts from the debate about the future of welfare that took place in Britain following the depression. The collection covers the following areas: The period during which the country felt the full impact of the world depression. A number of solutions were put forward during this time to address the arising issues - in particular the consequences of mass unemployment. The approaches ranged from orthodox Marxism to modified conservatism and "middle opinion" A key feature of the debate was the concept of planning as a device to enable governments to cope with economic and social problems. * A range of different ideas were widely canvassed during the war years. It was considered that successful conduct of war could then be applied to the problems of peace. This set resurrects certain proposals, influential in the climate of the times, which have subsequently dropped out of circulation Early assessments dealing with the implications of Welfare State legislation are also included. Although the implementation of the welfare programme was in effect a bipartisan process it did not take long for doubts to be expressed - some of which were directed at the principles on which the Welfare State was being constructed. Volume 1 includes ‘The Next Five years’.

A range of different proposals were widely canvassed during the war years - the selection here is intended to resurrect a number of those that have subsequently dropped out of circulation but were influential in the climate of the times. A final section covers a number of early assessments of the implications of the introduction of welfare state legislation. Although the implementation of the welfare programme was in effect a bipartisan process it did not take long for doubts to be expressed. Some were directed at the principles on which the welfare state was being constructed. The collection closes with the discovery that poverty, whose banishment was a key objective of the whole enterprise, was still very much present.