Mr Bunting at War

Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics

by Robert Greenwood

George Bunting, businessman, husband and father, lives a
quiet life at home in Laburnam Villa in Essex, reading about
the progress of the war in his trusty Siren newspaper and
heading to work every day at same the warehouse where
he has been employed for his entire adult life. Viewed
with an air of slight amusement by his three children, Mr
Bunting’s war efforts comprise mainly of digging for victory
and reluctantly erecting a dugout in the garden. But as the
Second World War continues into the summer of 1940, the
Battle of Britain rages in the skies and the bombs begin to
reign down on London, this bumbling ‘everyman’ is forced
to confront the true realities of the conflict. He does so with
a remarkable stoicism, imbuing him with a quiet dignity.

This reprint of a 1941 classic includes an introduction from
IWM putting the work in historical context and shedding a
light on the wartime experiences of the quiet ‘everyman’ and
his family on the British Home Front: He was not brilliant, nor
heroic, but there was one thing he could do – endure. He
could stick it out right to the end. It was the one thing he was
good at, and it happened to be almost his sole duty.

Genres: World War II

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. ^2

Robert Greenwood (1897-1981) English novelist and short story writer.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed every book I’ve read in the Imperial War Museum’s Wartime Classics series but Mr Bunting At War is my new favourite and I am offically in love with Mr Bunting. As with all the books in the series, it has a fascinating introduction examining the historical context of the book but it does contain a spoiler so I would recommend reading it after finishing the book.

Mr Bunting has a quiet stoicism and a detemination to put on a brave face for the sake of his family. ‘However disheartened he felt, he always remembered to pull himself together as he reached home. He looked upon it as a duty.’

I loved all the little details of domestic life in the Bunting household – Mr Bunting’s perpetual war on waste, his love of a good sausage roll, his incomprehension at his daughter Julie’s vegetarianism, Mrs Bunting’s meticulous approach to laundry. Although the book has plenty of humour, especially in the Bunting children’s gentle teasing of their father, it doesn’t shy away from depicting the terrible impact of German bombing raids on London and surrounding areas.  The destroyed houses and businesses, the streets littered with debris, the loved ones wounded, missing or dead. There are moments of hope, such as the wartime wedding of Mr Bunting’s son, Ernest, but also moments of great sadness.  I was moved by the way Mr and Mrs Bunting face up to things when adversity strikes, each drawing on the strength and support of the other. ‘We’ve got to go through the dark days together. It helps when you’ve got somebody.’ Oh dear, I think I have something in my eye.  In a way, their determination to carry on, even in the face of personal tragedy, exemplifies the courage of a nation whose freedom and very existence is threatened.

Yes, the book could be viewed as a propaganda piece intended to maintain public morale – there were plenty of films made during the Second World War designed to do just that – but who doesn’t need something uplifting during a time of crisis, something to raise the spirits and keep hope alive? And now that Europe faces a new aggressor, there’s something prophetic about the observation, ‘All the warnings of past years, all the unheeded prophecies, were now the facts of the moment, a nightmare made true and visible’. And I found myself agreeing with Mr Bunting’s observation, ‘It was a pity there weren’t more people like himself, particularly on the Continent. The more Buntings, the fewer Hitlers he considered’. I have a feeling there are quite a few Mr Buntings in Ukraine at the moment.

It will be pretty clear by now that I loved this book. It made me laugh, it made me cry and above all it made me marvel once again at the courage of those who lived through the Second World War and found the strength to carry on.

‘He was not brilliant, nor heroic, but there was one thing he could do – endure.’ This for me summed up the charm of Mr Bunting, the earnest, dogged and steadfast hero of this wonderful book.

[Bless Your Memory · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ life had brought him knowledge of many of his feelings, and the war had revealed more. He was not brilliant, nor heroic, but there was one thing he could do endure. He could stick it out right to the end. It was that one thing he was good at, and it happened to be almost his soul duty.

This was a slow read of enduring the war to the best of your ability.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because my parents lived through the blitz in London, I have an interest in fiction of the period, books that were written and published under wartime conditions when the outcome of the war was uncertain. So it's interesting to see the image of Mr Bunting at War in a 1941 hardback edition, on sale (signed! for £145!!) at John Atkinson Books. Previous books I've reviewed were flimsy paperbacks because of restrictions on paper and materials i.e. I, James Blunt, (1942) by H V Morton and John Steinbeck’s The Moon is Down (1942). I've also read a 2020 reprint of The Silence of the Sea by Vercors, which was published clandestinely in France under the Occupation, and subsequently throughout occupied territory, Russia, Britain and America. A hardback English translation by Cyril Connolly (oddly) titled Put Out the Light was published in 1944 Macmillan & Co.  So my assumptions about paperbacks and hardbacks were wrong, and it would be interesting to know more about this.

But I am not wrong about the heavy censorship that prevailed.  The Ministry of Information had a Literary and Editorial Division led by Graham Green that prepared morale-boosting publications, and Mr Bunting clearly fits into this category.

Mr Bunting is an Everyman, and his story was made into what was presumably intended to be an uplifting film called Salute John Citizen in 1942 but has not weathered well at all.  But the novel is more sophisticated than that.  Although Mr Bunting is the stoic patriot, but also sometimes a comic buffoon, the plot shows how the progress of the war affects the family. His children are better educated than he is, and he uses a small inheritance to set his sons up in small business — a laundry and a car repair shop, both of which are almost immediately affected by rationing and staff shortages.  So it's not just rationing that affects their standard of living, and the vegetables that he 'digs for victory' help the family budget.  As time goes by, it's not just the irritation of blackout curtains and darkened streets, it's also the infringement on their time.  With the exception of Mrs Bunting (who cooks, knits and keeps the home fires burning with courage and good cheer) all of them eventually have volunteer duties as well as their employment, even though in the (fictional) town of Kilworth in Essex, they think themselves safe from Hitler's bombs, though they turn out to be wrong about that.

The novel also shows generational differences.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/06/12/m...

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

General Overview
A wonderful find and gift, the republishing of wartime novels by the Imperial War Museum was a great idea. Mr Bunting At War is a wonderful quaint and yet grounded read about the common British people during the opening years of the Second World War.

Style
Our author, Mr Robert Greenwood does a wonderful job with the contrast of the brutal savagery of modern war and the quiet simple lives of regular people. How the Buntings respond to the war, to service, to the bombings, to the loss, is matched against their family conversations, and honest ways of life.

Having lived through and known the truth of this war and time in Britain, the novel throughout feels grounded. The hopefulness and humour feels genuine, and was something I loved about it.

Story
Following the father of the family, Mr Bunting, we join a family living through the start of the Second World War. How he, his wife, two boys and daughters lives change because of this conflict is wonderful shown here.

Mr Bunting endeavours to keep a stiff upper lip through the highs and lows, the family, with a colour cast of side characters, give a real look at the life of those not on the front. Though indeed the boys are eager for the fight, all play their part in the war effort.

Sorrow is found in these pages, and it comes upon the reader most unexpectedly, but delivered so very well. It honestly took my breath away.

Building to a quietly hopeful conclusion, we are left rooting for the whole family, as they carry on into the war, and the uncertain future beyond.

Final Thoughts
Originally published in 1941, I am so glad this and other books has been brought back into print. A delightful wartime story, that you wouldn't expect from such a genre,

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greenwood wrote Mr Bunting at War in 1941. It was the second of what was known as the Bunting trilogy, and in 2022 it was republished as a stand-alone novel by the Imperial War Museum.
Greenwood gives us something that is deceptively light. We assume that pre-war Bunting was something of a comic character: but this novel abounds in quietness, understatement and richness, just like its key characters as they go about their lives. Mr Bunting's eldest son has a desire to join the Royal Air Force, his second son he is frustrated with by his pacifist ways and his daughter is headstrong and easily of a new upcoming generation.
Mr Bunting’s stiff upper lip and dignity and "dig for victory" attitude are very endearing, it's easy to imagine the propaganda undertones in the movie adaption. Greenwood’s writing speaks of a world where Britain will win, his contemporary audience would not have known for sure that Britain would prevail, it was 1941 the worst of the London Blitz was over and there was still a long road ahead.

[Mark Bowden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating account of family life in the first year of the Second World War, moving from gentle comedy to tragedy but always with a background of stoicism, endurance, determination and courage. Some interesting patterns emerge, in differing reactions to similar predicaments. There are also some very clearly stated comments on topics such as democracy, authoritarianism and the contrast between 'love of country' and patriotism. The members of the Bunting family, their neighbours, friends and colleagues are beautifully realised. Thank you to the IWM for re-publishing this extremely valuable book.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very glad to have discovered these republished novels about WWII. Mr Bunting is “not brilliant, nor heroic” but I came to love him and his family as they wait for and then endure the Battle of Britain. Mr Bunting’s initial cluelessness evolves into a quiet dignity as the novel unfolds which will stay with me for a long time. Sadly, I can only tract down two of Robert Greenwood’s Bunting books.

[Robert Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, poignant, humourous, Mr Bunting shows a dignity and nobility in the face of the German attacks. Fascinating to think that this was published in 1941, during WWII. The author couldn't have known the outcome, but showed us the stoic strength of the British 'home front'.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Bunting At War is a reprinted novel in the Imperial War Museum’s Wartime Classics series, originally published in 1941. It is the second in a trilogy about Mr. Bunting. The first book explores his home and family life, while this second novel continues the story as the family grapples with the destruction and heartbreak caused by the Second World War.

Mr. Bunting is an interesting character. He leads a quiet life in Laburnam Villa, adhering to a set daily routine. He reminded me of Captain Mainwaring from the comedy *Dad's Army*. Mr. Bunting is straight-laced and somewhat pompous, convinced that his way of doing things is superior. This blend of traits makes him equally annoying and comical—a fact not lost on his children, who view him with amusement. Nevertheless, Mr. Bunting is one of those utterly reliable and decent men who can be depended on and who is prepared to die as part of the Home Guard, defending his country and the values he holds so dear.

At the beginning of the book, I found Mr. Bunting more irritating than amusing, particularly in his interactions with his oldest son, Christopher. The two share similar personalities, which makes it easier for Mr. Bunting to relate to him than to his daughter, Julie, or his younger son, Ernest. I felt that Ernest was misunderstood and undervalued due to his different outlook and political views.

As the novel progresses and the effects of the war draw nearer to Laburnam Villa, Mr. Bunting becomes a much more likable character. His pompousness gives way to a stoicism and reliability that defined a generation of working-class British people. When tragedy strikes the Bunting home, as it did for so many families, it is Mr. Bunting who helps the family navigate the darkest days with dignity, all while struggling with his own grief.

In the introduction to *Mr. Bunting At War*, it is noted that the novel and the subsequent 1942 film, *Salute John Citizen*, are considered wartime propaganda. However, the novel highlights the experiences of ordinary men and women living through a time of complete upheaval and fear. Reflecting on it from the perspective of 2024, it’s easy to recognize that victory was ultimately achieved. But at the time of its writing and initial reception, that victory was not guaranteed. The reassuring tone of the novel and others like it likely provided comfort to those facing widespread deprivation and loss.

I loved this novel and found myself loving Mr. Bunting, despite his human failings. The story offers deeper insights into the experiences of those who lived through this challenging time, continuing their everyday lives amid a level of instability I can’t imagine. It also instilled in me a greater respect for those ordinary men women and children who suffered and sacrificed so much while persevering daily life. As Mr. Bunting reflects, “Bunting! He believes they call this stuff bunting; common, tawdry, ordinary stuff. Yet out of it were made the banners of victory.”

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prose is excellent and not something easily found in modern literature. A fascinating glimpse into home life during WWII and the British stoicism that existed then.

[Tanya (Novel Paperbacks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a moving story with beautiful prose.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a classic of life on the Home Front in the early Second World War, a book dominated by the person of one Mr Bunting. Originally published in 1941, it has the immediacy of an account written without the benefit of hindsight, the knowledge of what happened later. It has now been reprinted by the Imperial War Museum in their Wartime Classics series, and made available as history written with a vivid flair. Not that its central character, Mr Bunting, is much given to dramatic impulses and spontaneous outbursts; he is a man of steady habits, thoughtful actions and being content with the small elements of his modest, regular family life. The author, Robert Greenwood, had already introduced Mr Bunting and his family in a novel in 1940, but in this book he appears fully formed and set in his ways. He is now confronted by the emerging realities of War, a very different conflict from the First World War of which he had experience; it soon becomes apparent that this is a fight which may well affect life at home in a totally different way from the previous battles. The book is written from the point of view of Mr Bunting, not in his exact voice, but revealing the frustrations, the satisfactions and the small issues that dominate his life. Being written at the time, this novel has all the tiny details of life, the difficulties of shortages of essentials like petrol, the rising prices of tobacco, the damage that was done to buildings and so much more. It is a fascinating account of social history, but also an intense character study written with a novelist’s sure skill. I found it a powerful, intense and sometimes moving novel, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to read and review it.

From the start of the book Mr Bunting is seen as, to use his daughter’s word, a “Fusspot”. He has suffered a setback in his job which he has embarked on as an office boy so many decades before, now with the onset of War he is restored to his accustomed environment of the ironmongery department of Brockleys, a well respected establishment in the city of London. He lives in the more peaceful setting of Kilworth, specifically in a comfortable house called Laburnum Villa. His wife Mary looks after the house and is a devoted mother to their now adult children, Ernest, Chris and Julie. She cooks and cleans to a high standard, but there are still the little annoying details that makes Mr Bunting despair of his offspring. He is at first depicted as checking the family’s shoes for the repairs that would extend their life, not from motives of financial fear but the simple sensible considered way of life that he finds essential. He has been a generous father in some ways; he has invested in the laundry that Ernest runs, and put up financial support for the garage where Chris works. He is also concerned with Julie’s well being, keen that she gets a suitable job until she marries.

Mr Bunting’s family tolerates his obsessions, not surprised at his sometimes pompous pronouncements, accepting his strictures on the gas masks which come to symbolise his almost academic interest in the War. At this stage the War is being fought elsewhere, a subject for newspaper speculation and consideration. The family are not immediately overly concerned, Mr Bunting may have some concerns but this is the time before air raids, before mass conscription, when War seemed distant. Ernest is a deep thinker, a keen musician who plays the piano with an artistry his father cannot understand, a quiet man of peace. Chris has always been entranced by engines, as expressed in his work on motor vehicles. Recently he has become fascinated by aviation, consuming magazines concerning recent developments, and the descriptions of his interest begin to link in with his possible war effort. Julie is a bright young woman who has the technique of “handling “ her father even at his most fussy. The book gives touching accounts of family scenes which Mr Bunting sometimes finds frustrating, when perhaps his wisdom is not well received, when his observations seem to clash with the realities of what is actually happening. The creeping concerns of the War, when the siren first sounds, when the news tends towards defeats coming closer, when a family friend, Bert, joins a tank unit and is subtly changed by his experiences.

This is a carefully written book, full of the small details of life, the concerns of an ordinary man. Perhaps Mr Bunting is shown as an over-precise, demanding man, difficult to warm to and not a dignified or exciting hero. As the book proceeds, and the challenges of war come literally closer to home, he becomes dignified in how he copes, resilient in his reactions, and a man who excites genuine admiration. I recommend this as an exceptional account of life in an exciting period of history, given a relatable human face in a context of real life, and perhaps the more heroic as a result.

[Amy Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Alan Jeffreys says in his enlightening introduction to Robert Greenwood’s Mr Bunting at War, the latest classic to be reissued in the Imperial War Museum's Wartime Classics series, we frequently read or study the literary legacies of the First World War. The poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon is on many a syllabus whilst Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is considered a modern classic. Yet the novels of the Second World War are, in comparison, often forgotten.

Mr Bunting at War, first published in 1941, is a sequel to Robert Greenwood’s earlier novel Mr Bunting (1940), which introduced us to George Bunting, his wife Mary, and their three children: Chris, Ernest, and Julie. Having not read the earlier novel, which depicts the Bunting family’s life in the 1930s, I was worried that I might struggle to engage with the sequel but Mr Bunting at War operates perfectly successfully as a standalone novel.

At the beginning of the book Mr Bunting has, owing to wartime staff shortages, returned to his former work as a manager in the ironmongery section of Brockleys in London, leaving his wife Mary to look after the family home. Sons Chris and Ernest are, initially, involved in running small businesses although both are contemplating whether, as young men of fighting age, they have a duty to enlist and support the war effort in more overt ways. Daughter Julie, meanwhile, is looking for employment after her previous boss enlisted to fight.

Thus we have a depiction of the quintessential nuclear family for whom, at the start of the novel, the war is but a minor inconvenience in their more significant life plans. As the novel progresses, however, and the German forces advance rapidly through the Netherlands, Belgium and France, the sound of air raid sirens shatter the silence of suburban Kilworth and the war steps ever closer to the Bunting family’s previously quiet existence within Laburnam Villa.

Mr Bunting at War is what you might call a ‘quiet’ novel, telling the story of an ordinary suburban family in a similar vein to R C Sheriff’s The Fortnight in September. There are few showy set pieces or sudden dramatic turns and, for the most part, the focus remains on the everyday activities and conversations of Mr Bunting, stoically keeping calm and carrying on. Over the course of the novel, however, I came to like and admire the Bunting family and their stoicism, and the novel gave me cause to reflect on the harsh realities of everyday life on the Home Front.

Mr Bunting, in particular, moves from being a faintly ridiculous figure – pottering around cleaning the family gas masks and seeking his neighbour’s advise on how to make his garden soil ‘friable’ so he can Dig for Victory – to being a quietly dignified father, friend, colleague and neighbour who, in his own quiet way, is determined to do what he can for the war effort.

Alan Jeffrey’s introduction to this new edition of Mr Bunting at War provides some useful historical context for the novel’s timeline although, readers beware, it does also contain a fairly major plot spoiler about the fate of one of the central characters.

As you might expect of a novel published in wartime, there are elements of popular jingoism in Mr Bunting at War, with its depiction of an ordinary man keeping calm and carrying on even whilst the first bombs of the London Blitz begin to fall around him. However the novel does not romanticise Home Front life. The economic deprivations of the Second World War are made abundantly apparent from the outset and, as the novel progresses, the Bunting family and their circle of friends will not be immune to casualties.

When I agreed to be part of this blog tour I was slightly worried that, not being a huge fan of ‘military’ books, Mr Bunting at War wouldn’t be for me. However, with its focus on a relatable everyday family caught up in extraordinary times, I found it to be a compelling and emotional read that offered a slice of life in Home Front Britain. Anyone who has enjoyed modern Home Front novels – such as Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch – would, I feel, find this contemporary description of wartime life interesting whilst lovers of classics such as The Fortnight in September will also find much to enjoy in this quietly rewarding tale.

NB: This review appears on my blog at https://theshelfofunreadbooks.wordpre... as part of the Blog Tour for the book. My thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.

[David Prestidge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another in the superb series of republished novels set in the Second World War. As author Wiliiam Boyd remarked:

“If poetry was the supreme literary form of the First World War the, as if in riposte, in the Second World War, the English novel comes of age. This wonderful series is an exemplary reminder of that fact.”

Robert Greenwood introduced Mr Bunting to the world in the book of the same title, published in 1940. He is something of a ‘stuffed shirt’, but entirely without malice, and he lives with his family in Essex, but within commuting distance of his work at an ironmongers in London. This is set in 1941, with London under siege from the skies, but by the end of the book the strategically unimportant district where the Buntings live is feeling the full wrath of the Luftwaffe.

George Bunting and his wife Mary have three grown up children, Chris, Ernest and Julie. Chris is, it could be said, George’s favourite son. He is practical, endlessly optimistic and cheerful, while Ernest is more introspective – and a gifted pianist. Both young men are trying hard to make a go of their respective careers, while Julie is something of a dreamer, and looking for suitable work.

The day to day world that Robert Greenwood describes would have been completely familiar to thousands of readers in 1941. So many elements of life then, however, are almost unimaginable to us now: the sheer terror of being under regular attack from the skies, the dread of receiving a telegram from the armed forces, the privations and shortages of food and the heavy hand of a wartime government laid on every aspect of normal life.

I was initially tempted to compare Mr Bunting with another gentleman from an earlier generation, Charles Pooter. Mr Pooter (the creation of George and Weedon Grossmith in Diary of A Nobody) lived closer to ‘town’, in Holloway. His house was called The Laurels, while Mr Bunting lives at Laburnum Villa. While the Grossmiths wanted us to laugh at Mr Pooter, Robert Greenwood takes a very different approach. He invites us, perhaps, to smile and raise an eyebrow at Mr Bunting’s rigid view of the world and his own place in it, but he never mocks. Bunting is a man of simple pleasures:

“There was nothing Mr Bunting liked better than to escape from the war and listen to his wife and daughter-in-law discuss the technicality of ‘turning the heel’ or report on experiments with recipes recommended by the Ministry of Food. To sit placidly smoking and listening to these discussions was to realise one had a home and a wife who was a jewel. If there was anything better in life, Mr Bunting wanted to know what it was.”

Through Mr Bunting, as he travels into London each day on his morning train, we see the carnage being wrought on the city. As he walks from the station to Brockleys, things almost become too much for him:

“Through the devastation he walked, stepping over hoses, skirting the edge of craters, threading his way past grimed and bloodshot firemen, single-mindedly pursuing his own particular business. There were gruesome sights, too, sensed rather than seen, tarpaulins stretched over what he knew were human forms. Once, a lock of a girl’s hair fluttered brightly as the wind ruffled her crude shroud. He bit his lip, and looked away.”

In George Bunting, Robert Greenwood created a character who is ordinary in the extreme, socially gauche, but from a generation of people who simply ‘got on with things’ when the darker side of life – in this case, a world war – threatened to overwhelm them. When tragedy strikes the family, he is devastated, but breaking down is simply something that was ‘not on’ in those days. To the fraudulent modern day gurus of self-love and ’emotional intelligence’, George Bunting would seem like someone from another planet, but Greenwood gives him courage, dignity and – above all – common decency. Mr Bunting at War is an Imperial War Museum Classic, and will be out on 21st April.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely reprint of a 1940s novel by the Imperial War Museum.

This follows the first novel, Mr. Bunting. A generally conservative businessman now faces the changes brought by the early days of the Blitz: building an Anderson shelter, planting a victory garden, losing a son to battle. He disapproves of change, yet he rises to the occasion as his life is upended with bombing.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr Bunting at War looks at the life of the eponymous George Bunting who lives an ordered life in Laburnum Villas in Essex. He travels to London each day to work at Brockley's, an established ironmongery business, which hasn't, up until now, appreciated George's finer qualities, that is, until the expediency of war causes him to be promoted. We meet the Bunting's family in the early years of the Second World War when George is troubled by his family's seeming indifference to the fact that there is a war going on.

There's a gentleness to the narrative which belies its strength as it takes us directly into the ordered life of the suburban household on the cusp of some of the worst war time devastation. Of course, we can look back with hindsight, to the destruction caused by the bombs which rained down on London, but to those going about their daily lives, they had little sense of what was to come, with many going so far as to think it was simply just an 'empty threat'.

What Mr Bunting at War brings into sharp focus is the way in which the ordinariness of life was forever changed. People were not just making do and mending, they were enduring hardship which would characterise them for rest of the war. However, with true British fortitude and stoicism, bombs could fall around them but, like Mr Bunting, they would still head off to work, tend to their vegetable patches and sit down for tea at five o'clock.

Mr Bunting at War is very much of its time and that is what makes this such an absorbing and very readable story. I find that there is something really special in reading a novel which was actually written during the time of the Second World War, bringing us a fascinating glimpse into a world which is now just a distant memory.

[Bodies in the Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a gift from my partner when we visited the IWM North earlier this year.

It took a long time for me to read, not because I wasn’t enjoying it (I was) but because I feel that at the moment we are seeing such a shift in the way Britain behaves in and is perceived on the world stage. Sometimes I’m ashamed to be British!

Robert Greenwood’s novel portrays the reality for many families on the Home Front in World War II. Mr Bunting is an Everyman character, and like the original Everyman we watch him suffer.

The book itself is a sequel to an earlier book set in the 1930s and now I can’t wait to read it!

Three word review: Home Front fortitude.

[Mrs Josephine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still reading this lovely family set in 1940. It is so well written and just flows. Mr Bunting the husband and family is quite amusing and he feels he is not appreciated by his family but overall realises that he is. The actor the late Arthur Lowe of Dad's Army popular TV series would have been perfect if there had been a film of this book.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book from What Cathy Read Next (here on Goodreads)