The Love-Charm of Bombs is an enchanting biography examining the experiences of five authors — Graham Greene, Elizabeth Bowen, Rose Macaulay, Henry Yorke (pen-name Henry Green) and Hilde Spiel — in wartime London, writes Angela Johnson.
Volunteering as ambulance drivers, firefighters and ARP wardens in the height of the Blitz, they wrote of fearful blackouts and London ablaze.
Author Lara Feigel brings this vividly to life through the authors’ eyes using letters, diaries, journalism, official records and their fiction. She guides the reader through the agonies and the ecstasies experienced by our protagonists.
With the nation under siege, even the strongest nerves and loyalties were tested, and Feigel beautifully chronicles the exhilaration and dread brought about by certain death looming each night, and delves into the illicit affairs each author had during the war years.
Woven with keen detail, Feigel’s writing style is all at once inviting, entertaining and informative.
A genuinely accessible text, littered with photographs, maps and extracts, this is a compelling look at the Second World War through the eyes of not-so-ordinary people — some of our best-loved authors, whose personal histories led to them writing some of the great literary works of their generation.
* Lara Feigel will talk about her book at the Oxford Literary Festival on March 24.
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