Product Description

Drawing material from the Imperial War Museum's extensive aural archive, Joshua Levine brings together voices from both sides of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain to give us a unique, complete and compelling picture of this turbulent time. In June 1940, British citizens prepared for an imminent German onslaught. Hitler's troops had overrun Holland, Belgium and France in quick succession, and the British people anticipated an invasion would soon be upon them. From July to October, they watched the Battle of Britain play out in the skies above them, aware that the result would decide their fate. Over the next nine months, the Blitz killed more than 43,000 civilians. For a year, the citizens of Britain were effectively front-line soldiers in a battle which united the country against a hated enemy. We hear from the soldiers, airmen, fire-fighters, air-raid wardens and civilians, people in the air and on the ground, on both sides of the battle, giving us a thrilling account of Britain under siege. With first-hand testimonies from those involved in Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, Black Saturday on 7th September 1940 when the Luftwaffe began the Blitz, to its climax on the 10th May 1941, this is the definitive oral history of a period when Britain came closer to being overwhelmed by the enemy than at any other time in history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73765 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

About the Author
Joshua Levine practised as a barrister for several years before becoming an actor and writer. His plays have been performed on the London stage and on BBC Radio 4, and he has scripted a television documentary about eighteenth-century London for BBC2. He was the primary researcher for Forgotten Voices of the Great War and Forgotten Voices of the Second World War. This is his first book.

Customer Reviews

Forgotten No More
Josh Levine has worked hard, listening to hundreds of interviews held at the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive. He has done all the graft for us and distilled into the latest of the 'Forgotten Voices' series the very best quotes from that huge collection of tape recordings with people who actually experienced the Blitz and the Battle of Britain. No modern author could duplicate the intensity of emotion and vividness of expression that simply leaps from the page as you read this fantastic book. From the ordinary people in their air raid shelters, the ARP wardens on the streets, the unbelievably heroic bomb disposal teams, the German bomber crews above them, right through to the fighter boys in their Hurricanes and Spitfires - everything is here. Oral history is brilliant in recreating the mood of the moment, explaining just how things worked but with shafts of very real humour to dilute the underlying tragedy of humanity at war. This book is oral history at its very best.