Second World War historical fiction

Image from Museums Victoria

As you would expect, my reading list includes numerous books set in the UK during the Second World War. Here are some of my favourites -- the ones that have swept me away into their worlds and kept me turning the pages:

• The Rose Code - Kate Quinn (set largely at Bletchley Park)

• These Days - Lucy Caldwell (set over a handful of days during the Belfast Blitz)

• Letters To The Lost - Iona Grey (dual timeline story set in London during the war and in 2011)

• Dear Mrs Bird* - A.J. Pearce (set in London during the war)

• Still Life - Sarah Winman (set in Italy and London during the war and after)

• Life After Life - Kate Atkinson (set during the war, as well as before and after)

• The Camomile Lawn - Mary Wesley (set mostly during the Second World War in London and Cornwall)

*plus its sequels: Cheerfully Yours and Mrs Porter Calling

These are novels that have lingered in my memory, that I tell others they should read, and that - even if I’ve read them as ebooks or heard as audiobooks - I’ve gone back and bought as physical books to pore over again and again.

But these aren’t the only ones that I’ve read recently and enjoyed. Here are some other honourable mentions:

• Sisters in Arms - Kaia Alderson (set in the US, the UK and France during the war)

• The Welsh Girl - Peter Ho Davies

• The Secrets of Summerhayes - Merryn Allingham

• Goodnight From London - Jennifer Robson

• The Little Wartime Library - Kate Thompson

And then there are also books I’ve read and enjoyed set in the same period, but not necessarily in Britain:

• The Diamond Eye - Kate Quinn

• An Island of Secrets - Eva Glynn

• All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

• The Huntress - Kate Quinn

• Until Leaves Fall in Paris - Sarah Sundin

And I couldn’t not include those set in a similar time period:

• The Aftermath - Rhidian Brook (set in Germany immediately post-war)

• The Ship of Brides - Jojo Moyes (set a year or so after the war)

• The New Mrs Clifton (set in London a year after the war)

• The Morning Gift - Eva Ibbotson (set in Vienna and England just before the war)

• Atonement (set in pre-war Britain as well as wartime France and Britain, and finally postwar)

I am sure there are so many others that I have read and enjoyed that have temporarily slipped my mind. I do tend to read a lot of books set in this period, as you can imagine.

And if you’re interested in non-fiction books about the war, then click that link down there to find out what I have used for my research.

---