Why a Booktrail?
WW2: The tense and dangerous atmosphere of London during the bombing raids of World War II.
The Heat of the Day
What you need to know before your trail
Many people have fled the city, and those who stayed behind find themselves thrown together in an odd intimacy born of crisis. Stella Rodney is one of those who chose to stay. But for her, the sense of impending catastrophe becomes acutely personal when she discovers that her lover, Robert, is suspected of selling secrets to the enemy, and that the man who is following him wants Stella herself as the price of his silence. Caught between these two men, not sure whom to believe, Stella finds her world crumbling as she learns how little we can truly know of those around us.
Travel Guide
London
Famously, this is s a novel about the war, spying and London: precise in place and time, it starts on the first Sunday of September 1941’ and ends almost exactly two years later.
Some points in the story which coincide with important dates in the war:
Stella meets her lover Rover during the fall of France
She hears of the victory of El Alamein during her visit to Ireland
Her involvement with Robert coincides with the North African Landings
London is described as “The theatre of action” during this time.
Bowen descried blackout London as a “Garrison society” The author wanted to write this whilst the bombs were still falling in 1944 and she would send the finished chapters out of London for safe keeping.
She lived in a house in Regent’s Park
Ireland
Working as an ARP warden, the author was sent on many missions to Ireland for Churchill’s government
During the war she would send back reports about Irish attitudes, Irish moral and politics of the time. The house where she goes to in the novel is said to be based on her own home in Cork, Bowen’s Court.
In 1942 the Irish Tourist Association Survey noted that the house had been attacked during the 1798 rebellion. Bowen’s Court was demolished in 1961.
Streetview Maps
C) London - Churchill War Rooms
E) Dublin - Bowen's House
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Heat of the Day
Author/Guide: Elizabeth Bowen Destination: London, Dublin, Ireland Departure Time: WW2
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