Keith Lowe
The Unauthorised Version
Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War – 1938–1941
By Alan Allport
Profile 608pp £25 order from our bookshop
For more than seventy-five years, the British have been spinning myths about the Second World War. This was the conflict, we say, that made us who we are today. In 1939 we were a nation of country squires, slow to anger but steadfast in our defence of fair play and common decency. When Hitler attacked us we were completely unprepared and completely alone, but we stood up to him nonetheless. We survived only because of our ‘bulldog spirit’ and our genius for ‘muddling through’.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'"Hello Friend We Missed You", winner of this year’s Not the Booker prize, is recognisably alt-lit in style and sensibility, but with the benefit of added heart.'
Anthony Cummins on @RichOwainRobs's new novel.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/like-hell
'Wilder’s face abruptly hardened at my enquiry and all his geniality left him as he embarked on a bitter riff about what an appalling, ghastly person Monroe had been.'
William Boyd recalls meeting Billy Wilder in 1993.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/my-evening-with-marilyn
Lovely to be back in the Literary Review after a sabbatical: here are two new, fabulous books on America in the late 1970s. Highly recommended. https://literaryreview.co.uk/too-nice-to-be-president via @Lit_Review