With that in mind, I've compiled the following reading list for myself, picking and choosing whatever looked interesting, and likely missing some gems along the way. I don't expect to read every book here, because I'm sure I won't manage, and there will undoubtedly be numerous rabbit-trails to lead me astray. Nevertheless, it should be an enjoyable reading year!
World War I
- [Pre-WWI] The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West.
- The Virago Book of Women and the Great War edited by Joyce Marlow
- High Wages by Dorothy Whipple: Another novel by Persephone's bestselling writer about a girl setting up a dress shop just before the First World War.
- Round About a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves: A study of working-class life in Lambeth before WWI that is witty, readable, poignant and fascinating - and relevant nowadays. (Public Domain)
- Home Fires in France by Dorothy Canfield Fisher: A collection of 11 short stories based on the author's war work in France. (Public Domain)
- Christine (1917) by Elizabeth von Arnim (published under the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley). Info. (Public Domain)
- This is the End (1917) by Stella Benson: A novel set in London during the First World War, written while the war was still going on. It features a lady novelist, a woman bus conductor and a variety of indecisive men. (Public Domain)
- A Diary Without Dates (1918) by Enid Bagnold: An intimate, informal diary of the writer's personal experiences in a hospital for the war victims, vividly done and extremely good reading. (Public Domain).
- The War Workers by EM Delafield - Published in 1918, the story centers around the characters that live and work at an army support institution during WWI. (Public Domain)
- Missing (1917) by Mrs. Humphrey Ward. (Public Domain)
- The War and Elizabeth (1918) by Mrs. Humphrey Ward (Public Domain)
- Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain: One of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world.
- William - an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton: Prize-winning 1919 novel about the effect of WWI on a socialist clerk and a suffragette. (Public Domain)
A list of outstanding work by WWI Women Writers on WWI can be found at FirstWorldWar.com.
Between the Wars
- Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh: Satiric novel published in 1930 examining the frenetic but empty lives of the 'Bright Young Things.'
- Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930) by EM Delafield.
- Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton: An excellent 1932 novel by a very popular pre- and post-war writer, chronicling the life of a hard-working kindly Londy architect and his wife over thirty-five years. Review here.
- Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyn. A young woman's life in 1930s Bohemian London. Review here.
- The New House by Lettice Cooper: A 1936 portrayal of the day a family moves into a new house, and the resulting adjustments and tensions. Review here.
- Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary by Ruby Ferguson: A 1937 novel about Lady Rose, who inherits a great house, marries well - and then meets the love of her life on a park bench. A greate favorite of the Queen Mother. Review here.
- One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens: A 1939 book which recounts the authors pre-WWII time working as a cook-general in various homes around London
- Manja: The Story of Five Children by Anna Gmeyner: A 1938 German novel about five children conceived on the same night in 1920, and their lives until the Nazi takeover in 1933. Review here.
- The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. (Public Domain)
- The Proper Place by O. Douglas. Review here.
- Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. Essays on life in pre-WWII London; originally appeared as a column in The Times.
- Wave Me Goodbye/Hearts Undefeated Omnibus, Women's Writing of the Second World War (Virago) edited by Anne Boston and Jenny Hartley
- The Provincial Lady in Wartime (1940) by EM Delafield.
- Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys. Review here and here.
- Henrietta Sees it Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-45 by Joyce Dennys. Review here.
- Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Nella Last.
- An Interrupted Life: Etty Hillesum, The Diaries 1941-1943 by Etty Hillesum. Review here.
- Saplings by Noel Streatfield: A novel by the well-known author of Ballet Shoes, about the destruction of a family during WW2. Review here.
- House-Bound by Winifred Peck: This 1942 novel describes an Edinburgh woman deciding, radically, to run her house without help and do her own cooking; the war is in the background and foreground. Review here and here.
- Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson: A 600-page diary, written from 1940-45 in Notting Hill Gate, full of acute observation, wit and humanity. Review here.
- On the Other Side: Letters to My Children from Germany 1940-46 by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg: Written in Hamburg but never sent, these letters provide a crucial counterpoint to Few Eggs and No Oranges. Review here.
- Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes: Superbly written short stories, first published in The New Yorker from 1938-44. Review here and here.
- There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult: A touching and funny novel, written in 1944, about an elderly woman with memory loss living in Kensington during the blitz. Review here.
- A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair: An unusual and very interesting 1944 novel about a group of people living in the country during WW2. Review here.
- The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen: A brilliant recreation of the tense and dangerous atmosphere of London during the bombing raids of World War II. Review here.
- Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski: Novel about a father's search for his son in France in late 1945. One of Persephone's best sellers! Review here.
- Doreen by Barbara Noble: A 1946 novel about a child who is evacuated to the country during the war. Her mother regrets it; the family that takes her in wants to keep her.
- Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd: An unsparing, wry 1946 novel: Miss Ranskill is shipwrecked and returns to a completely changed wartime England. Review here.
- The Bread and Butter Stories by Mary Norton: These 15 recently discovered short stories by the author of The Borrowers are wonderful period pieces about being an upper-middle class woman in the 1940s and early 50s.
- Tell It to a Stranger by Elizabeth Berridge: Funny, observant and bleak 1947 short stories, twice in the Evening Standard bestseller list. Review here.
- Minnie's Room: The Peacetime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes 1947-1965: Second volume of short stories first published in The New Yorker. Review here.
- Nella Last's Peace: The Post-War Diaries of a Housewife, 49 by Nella Last.
- Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Nella Last.
- The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: A ghostly tale about the collapse of the British class system after WWII. Review here.
- Provinicial Daughter by RM Dashwood: A novel written by EM Delafield's daughter about the trials of a 1950s housewife in an English village.
- The Village by Marghanita Laski: This 1952 comedy of manners describes post-war readjustments in village life when love ignores the class barrier.
- Daddy's Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer: This 1958 novel is about the 'captive wives' of the pre-women's liberation era, bored and lonely in the suburbs. Review here.
- The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohemianism by Nicola Humble
- A Very Great Profession: The Womans' Novel 1914 -39 by Nicola Beauman: A mixture of literary criticism and historical evocation, first published 25 years ago, about women writers of the inter-war period. Review here.
- Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper by Alexandra Harris
- The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson
- The Wartime House: Home Life in Wartime Britain 1939-1945 by Mike Brown and Carol Harris
- A Woman's Place by Ruth Adam: A survey of women's lives from 1900-75, very readably written by a novelist-historian: an overview full of insights. Review here.
- Enemy at the Door: Series 1, Series 2
- Wish Me Luck: Series 1, Series 2
- Wartime Britain: Boxed set including "The Heat of the Day" (based on the Elizabeth Bowen novel), "Housewife, 49" (based on the journals of Lancashire housewife Nella Last) and "Island at War."
I happened on your list looking for information about Winifred Peck. Thanks very much--I've printed out the list as this is a period I'm very interested in at the moment.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, I'm so glad you found the list useful. Happy reading! :-)
ReplyDelete