The Little Wartime Library of Bethnal Green

Submitted: 14th February 2022

Bethan Green’s magical library with Kate Thompson

This is a remarkable novel inspired by the even more remarkable real life story of a library under ground! The library is the one at Bethnal Green in a disused tube station during the war.

Why was this library here? Who worked there? How did the library survive?

BookTrail locations in The Little Wartime Library

Boarding Pass Information :

Destination : Bethnal Green Library

Author guide: Kate Thompson

Genre: Historical fiction

Food and drink to accompany: Sssh no eating, drinking or talking in the library!

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BookTrail locations in The Little Wartime Library

This has to be one of my best books of 2022. Yes I realise we’ve barely woken up from the new year celebrations but this is such a wonderful story, beautifully told that I am sure I am going to be hard pressed to find a match to this.

Young librarian and widow Clara Button works in the underground library during WW2. The library is located in the disused tube station in Bethnal Green. It’s an actual godsend in many ways = not only from the bombs but from the daily grind. This is where people can meet and talk as well as there being so many books there! I loved the people who worked there and I felt I really got to know them very well really early on.

The entire idea behind this novel – not just highlighting the remarkable library but the community at large, the war effort, the community spirit, the resilience, the love of books and so much more = is just brilliant. The final pages left me feeling bereft but sure of where the characters were going and how the spirit of the library would endure.

I loved the feeling this book gave me. The fact that this community, this love of books realty did exist and really did make a difference, was a wonderful thing to discover. I really can’t thank the author enough for finding this story and for being curious enough to write about it, and in this way. Kate I could hug you as I’m sure the people from this novel would too.