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BRITAIN AT WAR
More that 750 original photographs from the archives of the Daily Mail packed into this book give a fascinating insight into a time when Britain faced the biggest threat in its history
381 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
49 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 15, 2020
Brings to life WW2 home front. The one annoying thing is the book doesn’t have a consistent order for the captions so you have to check which photo each goes with.
September 8, 2022
A very interesting insight as to what it was like during the war. The real life pictures from the time allows a deeper understanding and a more relatable way to understand the tragic years of war
February 4, 2015
Borrowed from public library. Large, heavy ... a book easiest read propped up on bean bag.
Chapters:
The Opening Moves,
The Blitz,
Protecting The Home Front,
In Uniform,
Women in the Workforce,
Don’t You Know There’s A War On?,
A Wartime Childhood,
Keep Smiling Through,
Victory.
Here is the public face of war, on the home front; as recorded by the photographers of the Daily Mail. The text by Maureen Hill’s is well judged, and is well placed on the pages.
To my eye, and to my heart, it was the photographs of bomb damage during the Blitz which most rendered my emotions; especially those of the devastation around St Paul’s cathedral, London; and those showing the gritty professional determination of women working in the munitions factories, men working (reserved occupations) in aircraft factories. How startling to suddenly realise how radically aircraft design and manufacture has changed in seventy years. The human subjects in the photographs either attend seriously to what they are doing, or to what they have lost; or they smile with dignified and strong-hearted defiance of the enemy. A lady of the Woman’s Voluntary Service gives a free haircut to a pensioner. His name is given: Mr WH Skipper, of Woodford, Essex. Details like that make one pause to think, and really bring this book alive. There is none of the fuzzy, drunken, pathetically pointless, ‘let it all hang out’ larking around, as snapped through millions of mobile phone cameras today. Instead, evacuated children are pictured sitting to attention in class, learning Welsh – an essential lesson we are told, because many of the villagers knew no English!
The bomb crater at Bank station (City of London) depicts both the crater and the temporary road bridge carrying army lorries packed with soldiers. The text informs that the wartime censor permitted publication of this image only with the crater blacked out. Keeping the morale of the nation high was crucial.
Here is a generation whose world must have quite literally turned upside-down; a generation who knew that having the support of friends and family around you was far, far, more important that owning an ever increasing quantity of personal possessions, more than anyone knows what to do with. That’s a very powerful, and humbling, message; which inevitably turns thoughts away from the past, and looks to the present and the future.
Today, we fight internal enemies of economic recession (depression), and unseen forces of cyberwar. What can now unite us in the teeth of payback time for a decade of rampant consumerism and vote-buying? How can we atone to those Brits on the home front in both WW1 and WW2, so as to be able to hold our heads up high and show that we live to build the Greater Britain for which they fought, worked, suffered deprivations, and (in some cases) died for?
Chapters:
The Opening Moves,
The Blitz,
Protecting The Home Front,
In Uniform,
Women in the Workforce,
Don’t You Know There’s A War On?,
A Wartime Childhood,
Keep Smiling Through,
Victory.
Here is the public face of war, on the home front; as recorded by the photographers of the Daily Mail. The text by Maureen Hill’s is well judged, and is well placed on the pages.
To my eye, and to my heart, it was the photographs of bomb damage during the Blitz which most rendered my emotions; especially those of the devastation around St Paul’s cathedral, London; and those showing the gritty professional determination of women working in the munitions factories, men working (reserved occupations) in aircraft factories. How startling to suddenly realise how radically aircraft design and manufacture has changed in seventy years. The human subjects in the photographs either attend seriously to what they are doing, or to what they have lost; or they smile with dignified and strong-hearted defiance of the enemy. A lady of the Woman’s Voluntary Service gives a free haircut to a pensioner. His name is given: Mr WH Skipper, of Woodford, Essex. Details like that make one pause to think, and really bring this book alive. There is none of the fuzzy, drunken, pathetically pointless, ‘let it all hang out’ larking around, as snapped through millions of mobile phone cameras today. Instead, evacuated children are pictured sitting to attention in class, learning Welsh – an essential lesson we are told, because many of the villagers knew no English!
The bomb crater at Bank station (City of London) depicts both the crater and the temporary road bridge carrying army lorries packed with soldiers. The text informs that the wartime censor permitted publication of this image only with the crater blacked out. Keeping the morale of the nation high was crucial.
Here is a generation whose world must have quite literally turned upside-down; a generation who knew that having the support of friends and family around you was far, far, more important that owning an ever increasing quantity of personal possessions, more than anyone knows what to do with. That’s a very powerful, and humbling, message; which inevitably turns thoughts away from the past, and looks to the present and the future.
Today, we fight internal enemies of economic recession (depression), and unseen forces of cyberwar. What can now unite us in the teeth of payback time for a decade of rampant consumerism and vote-buying? How can we atone to those Brits on the home front in both WW1 and WW2, so as to be able to hold our heads up high and show that we live to build the Greater Britain for which they fought, worked, suffered deprivations, and (in some cases) died for?
August 31, 2015
Review Title: Family photo album
This is a well-done coffee table book that lets the pictures--newspaper photos of World War II England--tell the story. Most of the 750 pictures are of people and places in and around London, since the paper was printed there.
Hill has divided the material into chapters such as the Blitz, the war at home, women in wartime, and wartime childhood, providing a brief introduction to each then stepping back so the pictures can talk. Many of the captions are from the original newspaper printing, indicated by quotes, and she also references notations from the back of some photographs, including information that was censored at the time.
The energetic stoicism with which the British faced their darkest and finest hour, or at least the public presentation of that "keep calm and carry on" attitude that the contemporary newspaper wanted to portray, shines through on every page. This feels like a family album telling the story of the good and the bad and in the end the rest of the story of the war.
This is a well-done coffee table book that lets the pictures--newspaper photos of World War II England--tell the story. Most of the 750 pictures are of people and places in and around London, since the paper was printed there.
Hill has divided the material into chapters such as the Blitz, the war at home, women in wartime, and wartime childhood, providing a brief introduction to each then stepping back so the pictures can talk. Many of the captions are from the original newspaper printing, indicated by quotes, and she also references notations from the back of some photographs, including information that was censored at the time.
The energetic stoicism with which the British faced their darkest and finest hour, or at least the public presentation of that "keep calm and carry on" attitude that the contemporary newspaper wanted to portray, shines through on every page. This feels like a family album telling the story of the good and the bad and in the end the rest of the story of the war.
April 21, 2016
Britain at War : Unseen Archives is a selection of over 400 photos from around Britain during the Second World War, taken from the archives of the Daily Mail newspaper. The introduction tells you that some of the pics are posed - whilst this is unsurprising in terms of WWII photos released to the public, I would also add that posed pics continue to be a feature of newspapers today. The photos are well selected and captioned - I only spotted a couple of errors, one of which was a caption error and the other was a pre-war pic captioned as wartime - Daily Mail should know better than anyone when it was taken! An excellent selection of high quality photos.
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October 7, 2017I don't have much to say about this book, it's pretty much a collection of photographs taken in Britain during WWII, it was interesting to go through.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews