A Stranger in the House: Women's Stories of Men Returning from the Second World War - Couverture rigide

Summers, Julie

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0743295528 ISBN 13 : 9780743295529

Editeur : Simon & Schuster, 2008

Synopsis

Book by JULIE SUMMERS

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

‘A fine achievement’ Spectator 27/9
‘A poignant, lingering account of war without end’ BBC History Magazine, October edition

‘This book makes compelling reading’ ‘BBC Who Do You Think You Are?’ Magazine, October edition
‘Her stories of both heartbreak and courage give voice to the women who fought their own battles throughout the war, and went on fighting long after peace had been declared’ Mail On Sunday 5/10
‘For the purpose of this moving book, Julie Summers spoke to more than 100 women for whom family life was altered forever by “the dislocation caused by six years of separation”. For six lonely years mothers, daughters, grandmothers, girlfriends, fiancées, aunts and sisters endured the deprivations of the war, longing for the day when the men they loved would come home. But the reality of their reunions was sometimes disappointing, disturbing and even tragic’ Daily Telegraph 11/10
‘For many the war would never really be over, and it is these people, their lives rent apart by the conflict, that are the subject of Julie Summers’s book’ BBC History Magazine Oct issue
‘After 1945 millions of servicemen returned home, many of them changed for ever. But as a new book reveals, so were the wives waiting for them – and the children they’d often never met’ Daily Express 10/10
‘The book makes compelling reading and would appeal to anyone engaged in family history research and wanting an insight into the Second World War’ BBC Who Do You Think You Are magazine, Oct issue
'More than 100 women tell their stories in sad, moving or funny accounts'
Best of 2008, Express 04/01
‘More than 4 million British servicemen were demobilised after 1945. Changed by injury or experience, they returned to a country that had also altered in their absence, yet were expected to get on with life and take up with families they hardly knew. Much has been written about men’s experiences of coming home; what distinguishes this book is its dedication to women’s first-hand accounts and reminiscences gathered from interviews and archive material’ Guardian 25/7
‘What Summers has done is tell the stories she collected from women, using transcribed interviews and allowing each experience to speak for itself’ The Sunday Times 26/7
‘Julie Summers’s accessible style combined with the compelling personal stories helps make this book an engaging read. From the uplifting to the heartbreaking, the stories here contribute to an understanding of the complexities of life after the war’
Family History Monthly September issue
‘Return of the troops; a wife remembers’
‘When my husband finally came home we discovered we were two different people, so much had happened in those years apart. My husband, older than myself, came back with the attitude of a sergeant-major; it was as if he expected me to jump up and salute when he entered a room’
‘The Second World War’ series, Guardian 11/9

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Over 4 million ex-service men were demobilised between 1945 and 1947. These men, changed by injury or experience, returned to a Britain that had also adjusted in their absence. In STRANGER IN THE HOUSE, Julie Summers talks to the women who were left to cope at home without their menfolk and explains how the longed-for homecomings were sometimes difficult for all concerned. With the majority of young men away fighting, wives, daughters and mothers maintained the home front by going out to work, running the household, looking after the family and becoming the main breadwinner. Of course most of these women looked forward for the safe return of their men, but often did not realise that they themselves had been changed by their own time coping alone. When the war was over there were many wives who had to deal with an injured, emotionally-damaged husband, children who had never seen their father before, mothers whose sons did not want to speak about their horrific experiences and those who thought their fiancés were dead only to find them reappearing after they had married another. Julie Summers has spent hours speaking to the women involved and listening to their often sad, sometimes joyous, stories. Families were long affected by the fall-out of the war's survivors, from depression to alcoholism to marital disharmony and divorce and many have spoken here for the first time about those challenges. An enlightening, fascinating insight into a little-known aspect of our recent history, STRANGER IN THE HOUSE is a moving and honest look at how ordinary women's private lives were altered forever.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster
• Date d'édition: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0743295528
• ISBN 13: 9780743295529
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 352