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Like a lot of poster's on here I have more than a passing interest in the history of the Second World War and all its machinations. There is no end of excellent reading material, some of which I have found through recommendation on here - 'Battalion' being the best example to date. Many thanks to those who recommended it.
However, the thing I've always being intrigued about is Britain immediately after the war ended ie late 1945 through to 46/47/48. I can't help thinking it must have been a curious time as the war effort ramped down, men returned from Europe and silence descended on the British countryside once more. Rationing continues and the coldest winter recorded strikes at times of fuel and food shortages.
So my question is this, does anyone know of any reading material or other media about that period?
If you get a chance read Savage Continent, an interesting book covering Europe immediately post WW2, eye opening to say the least.
Not Britain centric but worth reading.
Sounds good, thanks
Whilst now out of fashion CP Snow’s Stranger & Brothers series series covers approximately 1920-60 so gives a timeline pre and postwar.
Depending on your age, have you relatives or neighbours you can talk to - my folks were born in 38 and 42, so my dad in particular has interesting memories of list war South Shields
Perhaps look into the history of the political events of the times?
The welfare state was being set up so plenty to go at there.
Get this one:
Austerity Britain, David Kynaston
He also did a follow up for later years, and has done other similar books.
On a personal level:
Born in 1947 in a Bradford back-to-back with outside lavatory & tin bath. Two siblings followed & in 1952 (due to slum clearances) we were moved to one of the new council estates. Moved to rented terrace outside the city in 1955 (demolished in 60s). Parents struggled & saved for a deposit & mortgage & moved into our own terrace 1957 (2019 value £230k). I moved out early 70s.
Times were hard and money short. Many kids of primary age wore secondhand & hand-me clothes & some boys went without underpants! Generally, we were the poor kids from the estates or terrace streets. We never ventured into the posher districts & in the main most went to secondary moderns.
Play was in the streets or woods if nearby. Bogies were popular & even 8 and 9 yr olds knew how to stick a poker in the fire to burn a hole for the front axle bolt. Neighbours kept an eye on the kids and the streets were kept clean. Also most mum's could cook good basic meals. Takeaway was the local fish shop
Early 60s started work in a shipping office and a whole new world opened up. Unlike my kids my wife & I have never lived more than 5 miles away from where we were born.
No book to recommend - Just a short potted history
Rationing continued. Nothing got wasted.
People resolved that the misery of the Depression and the World Wars should never happen again.
So we got a welfare system, decent pensions, a NHS, and eventually a European treaty.
All of which enraged the big financiers who have spent their efforts since then undoing it.
What I remember best was the prevailing feeling of hope that the future would be better, then around the late 1950s that changed with the likelihood of instant incineration, weekly sirens, of the Cold War.
my nan said it was shit, and always had a massive stash of tins and sugar incase the germans started up again.
always said what she thought, my nan
It also depends on individual experience.
My Dad came to in England in 46 or 47 with just the clothes he stood in. He’d had a bad war and was old enough to have experienced some of the shit that went on in Eastern Europe in the 1930s.
For him, post war Britain was a really nice place and a land of opportunity*. After some national service working in mines and forestry, he got a job in a factory and educated himself at night school. By the early 1950s he was aspiring to a lower middle class lifestyle** . He opened a bank account, bought his own house and was the second person on his street to buy a motor car.
It wasn’t exactly a land of milk and honey, he had to work hard at dirty jobs and there was a lot of ingrained racism about. But nobody was trying to kill him and even when the authorities did tell him what to do, they did it politely.
*he actually wanted to go to America, but was working for a Major in British intelligence who sponsored his application for Britain.
**ie, still dirt poor by today’s standards, but way better off than most of the population in the 1950s.
If you are looking for less thinky, more entertaining sources then "Foyles War" is actually pretty good. Starts during the war then goes onto post war. Quite a bit of politics in it, generally based on fact with artistic licence. Repeated regularly on ITV2. All stand alone episodes but much better watched more or less in order
Thanks all for the suggestions, some interesting books on there. And also for the personal anecdotes, I wasn't expecting them but they make for fascinating reading
cheers V
As a few folk have said above a better bet may be to speak to people who lived through it. They often have tales that are both ordinary and extraordinary. Certainly put most of our modern whinges to shame.
Not a book about life post war Britain but I would strongly recommend Quartered Safe Out Here by George McDonald Fraser. It is a memoir of his service as an infantryman in 14th Army at the tail end of the Burma campaign and officer training then service in the Middle East after the war.
What you may find interesting is the descriptions of the hopes for the end of the war shared by the members of his section (mainly Cumbrians). The hatred for "Jap" and the joy when the atom bombs ended the war and saved the poor bloody infantry assaulting the Japanese homeland are fascinating.
The story of 14th (Forgotten) Army is not as well known as Battle of Britain, D-Day etc. but is well worth learning about. James Holland has written a history of the Burma campaign which is on my reading list.
For my mum and dad - ( born in the 30s to poor families) it was a time of opportunity and hope. Both went to cambridge university and became teachers which was something their parents could never have aspired to. More the early 50s than the late 40s tho
The rationing mindset stayed with them all their lives but for them it certainly was a time of opportunity and hope and the future looked rosy
Our Hidden Lives: The Remarkable Diaries Of Post War Britain
is a fascinating read. Composed of entries in the extraordinary Mass Observation Survey, it's what people were thinking and doing without anyone adding a later filter of perspective or imposing a context they'd have been oblivious to at the time.
It’s a peripheral part of the book but the last part of Sigh for a Merlin by Alex Henshaw has an account of the immediate post war period and the winter of 1947 in East Anglia with tidal surges and bad coastal flooding. Natural disaster stuff that you wouldn’t dream of in the modern UK. He was Supermarine’s chief test pilot at the Castle Bromwich Spitfire works. The rest of the book is better.
Try ‘One Fine Day’ by Mollie Panter-Downes, about one day set in post war Britain, published in 1947. Another insightful perspective of the time and it’s impact.