From the Bookshelf of Retro Reads…

A Chelsea Concerto

Frances Faviell

Start date: April 4, 2024

Finish date: April 30, 2024

Discussion: Group Reads

Discussion leader: Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 204 topics — 5,396 comments total

Group Reads

* Group Reads for 2024
By Carol She's S… , She's a mod, yeah, yeah, yeah! · 13 posts · 54 views

last updated Apr 05, 2024 11:48AM

Northbridge Rectory 5th of July 2025 read Spoiler thread!
By Carol She's S… , She's a mod, yeah, yeah, yeah! · 8 posts · 15 views

last updated Jul 23, 2025 01:17PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 12, 2024 Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history-europe, biography-memoirs, ww1-ww2

Oh my word,this book is so powerful!

& with important parallels with events in modern times

I have already read The Dancing Bear which was about Faviell's life in post war Berlin. This memoir is set earlier, but written after The Dancing Bear.

Flaviell is a relentlessly cheerful individual who epitomises the dauntless spirit that many Londoners showed during this terrifying time.

Frances (real first name Olivia) with her second husband Richard & her beloved canine companion, Vicki

As we ...more

50 likes · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2023 Tania rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ww2, middlebrow, london, autobiography-memoir, non-fiction

An extraordinary account of the Blitz and It's affects on Chelsea. Everyone should read it ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2023 Susan in NC rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, tbr-with-gr-groups, nonfiction, ladies-grp-2023

Amazing account of the London Blitz, written by an artist and writer, Olivia Faviell Lucas, who lived in Chelsea and used the pen name Frances Faviell.

What a wonderful life she is living at the opening of the book; she has traveled widely, lived abroad, has friends from all over the world. She did have to flee Shanghai, though, when the Japanese attacked. Faviell brought back to London a lovely, large ceramic cat, a guardian of the home, she was told by the Chinese shopkeeper. The cat sits in h Amazing account of the London Blitz, written by an artist and writer, Olivia Faviell Lucas, who lived in Chelsea and used the pen name Frances Faviell.

What a wonderful life she is living at the opening of the book; she has traveled widely, lived abroad, has friends from all over the world. She did have to flee Shanghai, though, when the Japanese attacked. Faviell brought back to London a lovely, large ceramic cat, a guardian of the home, she was told by the Chinese shopkeeper. The cat sits in her studio window, looking out on the street - everyone knows her window, sometimes coming up to ask about the cat. She has charming, interesting neighbors, many of them artists like herself.

The prologue is very touching, as she attends a concert in Chelsea in the late 1950s, and her memory naturally goes back to the early war years:

From there I could see children and dogs playing in that piece of ground near the river belonging to the hospital and open to the public – the place where I once walked and played with my little Dachshund Vicki, known to many as ‘Miss Hitler’, and where I met and made many friends. And suddenly, as I stood there, they all came crowding back again – the grey ghost faces, the wail of the sirens, the sound of gunfire, the crash and reverberation of bombs, the drone of planes and the crackle of flames. Back they all came…

Her account opens in June 1939; she has signed up as a Red Cross volunteer, and at a drill everyone laughs and jokes, never believing the war will come to England, let alone their lovely, vibrant riverside area of London! Things are quiet for the hot, sunny summer, and the lovely weather continues into autumn - but Hitler and the Nazis invade Poland in September, and soon the war becomes very real, and very close.

Her account of the Blitz, the horrific injuries she must deal with as a nurse, the Belgian refugees she assists (being bilingual), are searing, gripping, but told with a self-deprecating humor and honesty. She also writes about increasing hardships and shortages, and the desire to still go out, have gatherings with friends, get a perm! She seems like a delightful and caring person. I want to read her account of life in post-war Berlin, The Dancing Bear. She marries her husband, a civil servant, during the Blitz, and accompanies him there after the war with their son (born in an air raid).

This book was an incredible and powerful experience, I know it will stay with me. As an American, I’ve learned the basic chronology of WWII - the rise of Hitler in the 1930s, the invasion of Poland, the Blitz - but often thought of the war really getting underway for us after Pearl Harbor. I knew the British were incredibly resilient and brave, took in refugees, suffered rationing and shortages; but this account was so searing and personal, and taught me so much more about what the refugees and the British people went through. Highly recommended memoir. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2024 Barb in Maryland rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, biographies, military

Marvelous memoir of London during the Blitz.
The author was a First Aid worker in one of the hardest hit areas of London. She had a way of presenting the unvarnished details of the sights, sounds, and smells in such clear, calm, prose such that the reader can grasp the horrors without being beaten over the head with them.

She also wrote of her time in post-war Germany (The Dancing Bear). That one has been added to my TBR mountain.

A big thanks to the Retro Reads book group for bringing this book t ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 03, 2018 Theresa rated it really liked it

Shelves: ww-2, memoir

Frances Faviell is a Red Cross worker in London during World War 2 and “A Chelsea Concerto” is her memoir of her wartime experiences.

Written in a chronological form, the book begin with practices for a ‘real’ air raid, carries on through the period of the “Phony War” (when many in England felt that the war was just going to peter out), and then the war itself. Story after story is related here as personal lives are abruptly interrupted when war is declared.

There are trains evacuating and re-e Frances Faviell is a Red Cross worker in London during World War 2 and “A Chelsea Concerto” is her memoir of her wartime experiences.

Written in a chronological form, the book begin with practices for a ‘real’ air raid, carries on through the period of the “Phony War” (when many in England felt that the war was just going to peter out), and then the war itself. Story after story is related here as personal lives are abruptly interrupted when war is declared.

There are trains evacuating and re-evacuating children (because, during the Phony war, many of the children were sent back home ... and then evacuated again), and civilians are requested to leave the trains free for departing soldiers. Parents watch their children depart in crowded, confusing train stations for safer country homes, wondering if the separation will be permanent. Soldiers leave for France (and some don't return). Refugees arrive from Belgium, France, and the Lower occupied countries. And then the Blitz begins.

When the refugees begin to arrive in England, Frances, gifted with languages, works as an interpreter and assists in finding them homes, food and clothing. She is invaluable to many of those trying to carry on a normal life in the midst of chaos, suffering, and loss, and yet she retains a sense of modesty and self-abasement through it all.

“I worked for a long gruelling day until relieved by another Flemish-speaking nurse late next evening, and this time the misery and wretchedness of displaced humanity was one of sheer stark horror. And yet I could not look at all the grey tired faces of our own troops without intense wonder and gratitude that they were home – that with the horror of bombing and machine-gunning which had accompanied them – the RAF covering them and fighting for their protection all the way – it was surely nothing short of a miracle that such numbers were safe on their own shores. The troops had learned not to talk – not so the civilians. They poured into our ears tales of Dorniers, Messerschmitts, and Heinkels attacking them...”

The Londoners attempt to carry on normal life and their spirit seems unbroken even in the worst of situations. I found myself caught up more and more in this story, staying up late to read just one more page! However, this is not a light, pleasant read (just in case you are hoping for one...) Even though there are some happy times; parties, weddings, and new close relationships forming, there are no pretensions here, nothing glossed over or hidden in a sugar-coat of optimism.

The author does write about the courage of many but she also reveals the struggles that naturally arise among close quarters. There are arguments, complaints about the food (natural considering the shortages), and even an incident of suspected favoritism (over the size of allotted garden plots). The author, being a translator, is often called upon to settle these battles but when nothing else works, the police are occasionally called in to arbitrate. Both major and minor events are in the lives of those so pressed at such a challenging time in their lives are openly portrayed.

“Mr. Churchill had said that he promised us nothing but ‘blood, tears, toil, and sweat’. The Blitz was certainly bringing the blood, tears, and the toil, and it seemed to be bringing a great deal of dirt to some of us. When I stopped to think of the disgusting and revolting chores which the war was meaning for me I often rebelled violently, and wondered if a Florence Nightingale role really appealed to me – I loved fun, and was considered frivolous by my family. There were days when I felt I didn’t want to do one more thing for one more refugee or one more bombed-out person, although they compelled my compassion...”

The author writes realistically, openly and honestly about not only the incredible difficulties of this time but also the resilience of the human spirit.

“I had seen my friends in the height of the Blitz battling amongst those four things promised by Mr. Churchill, and in my much-travelled life I have never been more thrilled and amazed by their heroism. The quietest and most unexpected people seemed endowed with the courage of lions and the endurance of steel. Tireless and undaunted, they knew no thought of self as they faced fearful odds in the battle to save their fellow-men and their borough from the destruction from the skies.” ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 26, 2018 Jenn Estepp rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindling, memoirish-and-bios-too, world-at-war-twice, furrowed-middlebrow

An account of living in Chelsea during the London Blitz. Super interesting, although it occasionally dragged and there were tons of characters who came in and out of Faviell's life, so it was sometimes difficult to remember who was who. Which is why I'm glad I read it on my Kindle, so I could always search for a reminder. ...more

1 like · Like · see review