Norman Longmate
When London Burned
Blitz: The Story of 29 December 1940
By M J Gaskin
Faber & Faber 368pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
What were 'The Wednesday' and 'The Saturday'? The question sounds like the start of a Sherlock Holmes mystery or a specialist round of Mastermind. The correct answer is that these were the names by which two particularly heavy air raids in April 1941 came to be remembered. To these can now be added 'The Sunday', hitherto known as 'The Second Great Fire of London'.
M J Gaskin is too young to have lived through the war, but as a child she developed a great interest in the history of London. It was while 'wandering the silent Sunday City alone' that she realised how often the way back to the past was barred not merely
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