V For Victory

SHORTLISTED FOR HWA Crown Awards 2021 'A book to be treasured and returned to again and again' The Independent 'Funny, moving and utterly life-enhancing' Daily Mail With caustic wit and artful storytelling, Lissa Evans elegantly summons a time when the world could finally hope to emerge from the chaos of war. ___ It's late 1944. Hitler's rockets are slamming down on London with vicious regularity and it's the coldest winter in living memory. Allied victory is on its way, but it's bloody well dragging its feet. In a large house next to Hampstead Heath, Vee Sedge is just about scraping by, with a herd of lodgers to feed, and her young charge Noel ( almost fifteen ) to clothe and educate. When she witnesses a road accident and finds herself in court, the repercussions are both unexpectedly marvellous and potentially disastrous - disastrous because Vee is not actually the person she's pretending to be, and neither is Noel. The end of the war won't just mean peace, but discovery... ___ Readers love V For Victory: ***** 'The characters stay in the memory and heart.' ***** 'It's pitch perfect - funny, sad, moving, compelling' ***** 'Full of warmth, wit and wisdom, an absolute joy'

A noted historian examines the impact of culture and politics on the wartime attitudes and experiences of Americans and their expectations concerning the postwar world.

Describes life in the United States during World War II, discussing such activities as civil defense, the Japanese relocation, rationing, propaganda, and censorship.

Thumbs Up, V for Victory, I Love You chronicles a special time, from the early 1940s through the mid-50s. It reveals how people moved forward in a world in tumult, and the payoff they received having survived it. Its about a handful of kids who because they were in the right place at the right time were provided an education well above the norms of the day. It reflects the melodrama that is real life, when young and old lived each day to the fullest while making the most of what they had. Its an oral history that tells how the wonders of discovery, communication, education and the opposite sex changed an impressionable boy into a determined young man. A period that has not been afforded the coverage it deserves, Thumbs Up, V for Victory, I Love You reveals a softer time, but one no less significant or singular than any other.

Tells of the Amerian efforts to provide equipment for World War II and tells of the situation in America at the time.

When Noel Bostock - aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he winds up in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thiry-six, drowning in debts. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it. The war's thrown up all manner of new opportunities but what Vee needs is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a team. Together they cook up an idea. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn't actually safe at all . . . Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, 2015

"It seems strange now, looking back, that there was a time when the BBC - or an organisation paid for by the BBC - spoke to the people of Europe in this way. It seems even stranger that it gave them instructions in subversion and incited them to sabotage. There were parts of the establishment which never forgave this, and parts of the BBC too, but the legacy remains with us..." At the start of 1941, Britain stood alone and a great silence fell over occupied Europe. What were they thinking? Did they want to resist? Nobody knew - nor did they know how to build up the confidence of the occupied peoples so that, one day, they might want to fight back. The result was an extraordinary radio campaign, broadcast from London, and led by a man known to the world as 'Colonel Britton'. The V campaign caught the imagination of people around the world. It gave Churchill and de Gaulle their hand gestures. It inflamed what was already an almighty propaganda battle over the airwaves. But it was also furiously controversial in London, as rival government departments struggled to assert control over broadcasts to occupied Europe. This book tells the amazing story of how a radio campaign was able to shape resistance to the Nazis, and how and why - for a brief moment in time - Britain spoke fearlessly, passionately and positively to Europe.

Secret Victory is captivating and disturbing in equal measure. It reveal's how the IRA was infiltrated, degraded and strategically defeated - at times with violent and deadly consequences. To read this book is to understand how intelligence drives irregular conflicts.