THE IWM’S GREAT LOST BOOKS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Sword Of Bone by Anthony Rhodes: The phoney war and evacuation from Dunkirk of the British Expeditionary Force are retold in vivid, detail in this startling 1942 novel.
From The City, From The Plough, by Alexander Baron: Historian Antony Beevor describes this tale of British infantrymen as “undoubtedly one of the very greatest British novels of the Second World War”.
Warriors For The Working Day, by Peter Elsob: Featuring the Normandy campaign and the “grinding claustrophobia, violence and lethal danger of being in a tank crew”, says James Holland.
Plenty Under The Counter by Kathleen Hewitt: “Boasts everything a great whodunit should have and more,” says Andrew Roberts of this tale of wartime London and the black market. Pathfinders by Cecil Lewis: The First World War fighter pilot and author of the acclaimed
Sagittarius Rising returned to train pilots in WWII, and wrote this gripping classic about a bomber crew.
Patrol by Fred Majdalany: “A military masterpiece,” says writer Allan Mallinson of this novel set in the North Africa desert of 1943.
Trial By Battle by David Piper: Retelling the jungle campaign, a “tremendous rediscovery”, says author William Boyd.
Eight Hours From England by Anthony Quayle: He would find fame as an actor but fictionalised his wartime experiences in Albania with the Special Operations Executive.
Squadron Airborne by Elleston Trevor: A classic novel of aerial combat set in the autumn of 1940 at a fictional Spitfire squadron.
Green Hands by Barbara Whitton: “Evokes the highs and lows, joys and agonies of being a Land Girl,” says historian Julie Summers.