Overview

We take summer holidays for granted but, back in the 1940s, the picture was very different. War had gripped Britain. Wave after wave of bombs fell, beaches were closed off, and petrol was rationed by the forbidding question, 'Is your journey really necessary?' But the summer days (with double summer time) seemed to go on forever, war or no war - and British families were determined to make the best of their paralyzed country. For evacuated children, this meant freedom that is unimaginable today: wandering at will, discovering wildlife in fields and ponds, foraging from orchards and hedgerows and swimming in the streams. Elsewhere, country estates were requisitioned for the war efforts, the tennis courts given over for training and the Lord and Lady of the manor sent packing! Dances attracted people from all walks of life - from ballroom dances to the thrill of the arrival of the GIs and the jitterbug. But the shadow of war was never far away; the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, and the D-Day Landings in 1944 took place in June - with unreliable summer weather playing a part in both. In this book, Caroline Taggart shows us how Britons succeeded in keeping up spirits in spite of the constant devastation of battle. It is a revealing and entertaining collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who lived through those six long years. Touching, tragic, occasionally hilarious, it shows the British soldiering on as best they could.

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9781789461244

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Caroline Taggart worked in publishing as an editor of popular non-fiction for 30 years before being asked by Michael O'Mara Books to write I USED TO KNOW THAT, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. Following that she co-wrote MY GRAMMAR AND I (OR SHOULD THAT BE 'ME'?) As a result of these books and HER LADYSHIP'S GUIDE TO THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH, published by Batsford, she has appeared frequently on BBC Breakfast and on national and regional radio, talking about language, grammar and Pythagoras's theorem. Her record is 16 radio interviews in one day on the subject of exclamation marks. Her other books include THE BOOK OF ENGLISH PLACE NAMES, THE BOOK OF LONDON PLACE NAMES, HOW TO GREET THE QUEEN (AND OTHER QUESTIONS OF MODERN ETIQUETTE) and A SLICE OF BRITAIN: AROUND THE COUNTRY BY CAKE which The Sunday Times described as 'engaging, greedy and droll'. Since then she has reverted to words, with 500 WORDS YOU SHOULD KNOW, NEW WORDS FOR OLD and her current project, MISADVENTURES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, due in autumn 2016. The latest in her 'Her Ladyship' series for Batsford is HER LADYSHIP'S GUIDE TO THE ART OF CONVERSATION. Her website is carolinetaggart.co.uk and you can follow her on Twitter @citaggart.

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