The Battle of London 1939-45: Endurance, Heroism and Frailty Under Fire
Bodley Head £30
Jerry White has a unique relation to London and Londoners. More than a historian, he is the city’s witness, champion and town-crier, tolling his bell through the streets, oyez, oyez, oyez, proclaiming the latest chapter in the life of the metropolis.
White’s method is to describe the growth of this ‘great and monstrous thing’, as Daniel Defoe described the capital, by weaving statistics and figures into the reflections of shopkeepers and street-sweepers.
His books unfold gives us a glittering phoenix rising from the ashes of the fire of 1666; in , the now-maturing city goes in search of law and order; and in , the citizens turn their attention to privacy.
