The Little Wartime Library: A gripping, heart-wrenching WW2 page-turner based on real events

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The author incorporates real events such as the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster of 1943 and the Hughes Mansions Tragedy of 1945 into the narrative. I received a gifted copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review as part of the book tour hosted by Random Things Tours. A split character narration forms the basis of this novel’s engrossing format, which is shared over librarians Clara and Ruby. But, like old-style bartenders with Google-savvy minds, the librarians were more than book pushers and really heard out people and dispensed advice and help with their book offerings (hats off to the librarians who are still at it today). Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a cafe and a theatre offering shelter, solace and escape from the bombs that fall above.

Mentions of the local asylum too were poignant and when you realise that some of the events are still in living memory for some people makes it feel even more so.It leaves you with a sense of the hardship many people faced after losing their homes and the importance of friendship and businesses going the extra mile to help communities through tough times. Because they have their own demons to fight alongside the greater war issues, they inspire the reader to grasp opportunities and take a chance in their own lives.

One of the Second World War’s biggest civilian disasters was quickly hushed up under the Official Secrets Act by a wartime government desperate to avoid news of the scandal falling into enemy hands. The library itself is literally underground, in an abandoned train tunnel turned bomb shelter in London. The fearful explosion that had sent people hurrying to the shelter hadn’t even been enemy bombs, but the government testing new anti-aircraft missiles in nearby Victoria Park. This book is a gem and I appreciated reading the author’s note at the end and the true story of Bethnal Green Library and the fight to save it.In her most recent publication, Thompson has penned a story about strength, resilience, resistance, courage and the power of the written word. The almost furtive joy of being able to borrow books to read for free, and the emotional liberation and adventure this ability confers, suffuses every chapter of this novel. Kate Thompson recognises the importance of what remains one of the biggest civilian disasters of the era and along with other hard truths of the period (domestic abuse and unspoken mental health issues) ensures that the events of the story are never sugarcoated. When you close a library, bad things start to happen in the neighbourhood where the library used to be. Pat Spicer wanders up the long gloomy tunnel with her nose in a book, scarcely noticing the ripe stench of so many unwashed bodies, or the distant crump of the rocket’s meteoric impact, for Milly-Molly-Mandy has her enthralled.

Kate Thompson редуваше лекотата на общуването между всички герои със страшните моменти на обреченост. Clara ( who I immediately liked ) has created a library as part of a secret community that makes it’s home in the dis-used Bethnal Green tube station! The author does a brilliant job of not only painting a realistic picture of life in wartime Britain but also gives us an insight into societal changes during those times that also impacted reading habits and preferences, especially among women. The scene was set really well and so many aspects of the war that were hidden or kept quiet at the time (I never knew for example until recently about the sheer number of deaths as people were crushed trying to get into the underground station during a moment of panic). This October [2022] Bethnal Green Library – now firmly reinstated above ground – celebrates its centenary and its astonishing history as a symbol of resistance.

I tried to major in the Library Media Specialist program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a major in the program because I was disabled and I want to give a giant shout out to Ann Zarrinia and Eileen Shroeder who ran the department together and the head librarian of the Palmyra Public Library whose name I have forgotten during 2010 which refused to let me complete my internship for not allowing me to complete my major.

With the help of library assistant and close friend Ruby, Clara keeps the library ticking over, providing an essential service to the local citizens of the nearby area. For borough librarian George F Vale and his deputy, Stanley Snaith, the underground village that had developed at Bethnal Green station was the perfect opportunity to set up a makeshift library and provide the local community with access to free books once more.Drawn from real life events, The Little Wartime Library is an engrossing title that will rouse all Second World War fiction fans. Looming large over the entire story is the tragic incident which saw 173 people crushed to death on the steps to the shelter and was hushed up by the wartime government over fears of its impact on morale. I absolutely loved the story of the underground community and learning more about the heart of soul of this community: the library, its Librarian, and its people. As the narrative progresses, we see how both Clara and Ruby not only stand up for their friends and family but are also compelled to make choices that would significantly impact their own stories.