Blitz Spirit: 'Fascinating' -Tom Hanks (Paperback) - Becky Brown

Becky Brown mines the Mass Observation Archive for wartime experiences of 1939-45 to show how the lives of people now generations away have relevance to our twenty-first century experience.

'An utterly fascinating book - conversations and human behaviours recorded in real time' Tom Hanks

'Fascinating ' Elizabeth Day

'A hugely affecting and absorbing read.' The Bookseller

'Finally, a book that is proving very therapeutic in these difficult times... Full of doubt, fear, anger and rueful comedy, they give the lie to the idea that the Brits maintained a stiff upper lip, but it's immensely consoling to know that our forebears sometimes thought that they were living through the end times but survived to enjoy better and brighter days.' Jonathan Coe, The Times

'With 34 million of us in Tier 3, these Mass Observation diaries have an added fascination: it's impossible to read them without coming across parallels on almost every page, people's characters revealing themselves under wartime restrictions just as they do under Covid ones.' The Times

'A great book - such a good read.' Jeremy Vine

'Brown's book features an eclectic selection from the wartime years and is full of fascinating and sometimes surprising insights.' Mail on Sunday

'Moving and unexpectedly funny, it's these words that may offer comfort.' Woman's Weekly

'What extraordinary voices of Britain living through crisis! A brilliant testament to resilience.' Anne Glenconner

'A stirring and evocative account of life on the home front. Full of surprises that bring a fascinating perspective on the blitz spirit.' - Deborah Cadbury, author of Chocolate Wars and Princes at War

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Throughout the Second World War hundreds of people kept diaries of their private daily lives as part of a groundbreaking national experiment. They were warehousemen and WRENs, soldiers and farmhands, housewives and journalists, united only by a desire to record the history they were living through.

For decades their words have been held in the Mass-Observation Archive, a time capsule of ordinary voices that might otherwise have been forgotten. These voices tell the human story behind the iconic events of those six years, of the individuals grappling with a world turned upside down. From panic-buying and competitively digging for victory to extraordinary acts of bravery, Blitz Spirit is a remarkable collection of real wartime experiences that represent the best and worst of human nature in the face of adversity.

Resonant, darkly funny and deeply moving, this new collection will reveal what it was like to live through a crisis of unprecedented proportions. A cacophony of hope, cynicism and resilience, Blitz Spirit celebrates ordinary lives - however small - and shines a light on the people we were, and the people we are now.

About the Author

Becky Brown is an anthologist, editor and literary agent. Her eclectic work centres around a fascination with forgotten voices and hidden stories. She lives between Glasgow and London.

The Mass-Observation Archive is one of Britain's richest collections of material about everyday life. It contains papers generated by the original Mass-Observation social research organisation (from 1937 to the early 1950s) and newer material collected continuously since 1981. At its core is an unrivalled series of "ordinary" people's diaries, most of which were kept during the Second World War. The Archive is in the care of the University of Sussex.