November's Paperback Highlights 2022

By Sam Read Bookseller

November's Paperback Highlights 2022

By Sam Read Bookseller

There are some excellent books amongst this month’s releases.

Blitz Spirit: 'Fascinating' -Tom Hanks

Becky Brown

£10.99 £10.44

"This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Mass Observation (MO) movement, a nationwide exercise in observing everyday lives, through diaries and surveys, which began during the immense societal disruption leading up to the second world war. Anthologist and literary agent Becky Brown introduces this selection from the MO Archive spanning the war by highlighting the challenging rawness of private diaries from the period, how the frailties, fears and discord tell a story which resists the simple nostalgia of the phrase ‘Blitz Spirit’. Just as the ongoing pandemic has seen that phrase retread in calls for public unity, it’s a staggering experience to read the intimate thoughts of wartime Britain and find such uncanny reflections of the past two years. Amongst the entries are records of conflicts over blackouts, carrying (or being seen without) gas masks, gossip and travelling too far on rationed fuel alongside the dissonance of leisure as diarists attend football matches or go to the ‘flicks’. A particularly resonant passage from the retail front line is recorded by a teacher from Watford, noting in 1939 that ‘Women have so insulted shop assistants that the rule – that assistants may not be rude to customers or ‘answer back’ – has been relaxed’. A hugely affecting and absorbing read."