This book is just amazing. It's about how small child in Britain with a through family went WWII. It also mentions some famous speeches that were done by Winston Churchill himself.

This book, to me, really brought great insight on what WWII was about and how harsh the conditions were. I, as a teenager, realized that whatever decisions I make in the future will impact on how this world will be, and on how I need to make decisions that will lead this world to a path that will never see a war like WWII ever again.

I would recommend this book to people who need to reflect in their lives and people who need to change what decisions they make in their lives. ( )

A condensed and very readable history of WWII, interspersed with the memoirs of a then-young boy living in England during the war, this is an enjoyable book. It is interesting to see life during the war through the eyes of a small child. If that child had been older the memoir portion, the most engaging part of the book, possibly would have been longer. I sometimes found myself skimming through the straight history parts, which might not have been wise, as there are some really interesting sections, such as the one on the V-1 and V-2 bombs. ( )

Let me disclose up front that I received a PDF edition of this book as a giveaway in return for a review, and that the book could be just as easily categorised as "History" as "Biographies & Memoirs).

The blurb for the book says that it "gives a short insight into the horrors of the home front told from the perspective of someone who actually experienced them, a fascinating look at the harsh realities of life in Britain, life full of drama and the danger of impending death. How did a family with a small child caught up in such a war survive? There follows an overview of the major campaigns in World War II, giving an insight into the big picture, enlivened by personal experiences and quotations from Churchill."

What attracted me to the book was the promise that it would give an insight into the horrors of the home front from the perspective of someone who actually experienced them as a young boy. And it does do this, but this section of the book is far too short, and the overview of the major campaigns section is far too long as this section is not detailed enough for anyone with even a cursory interest in the history of WWII.

Having said that, the two separate parts of the book are very well written. It's just that both are too brief and not detailed enough for my own tastes. If you are only looking for a quick look at life in Britain during the war, or a very short summary of the major campaigns of the war, add an extra star to my rating.

BTW I did notice that the PDF edition I received has only 86 pages, so perhaps there is more detail in the Kindle and paperback editions, which are said on Amazon to have 148 and 150 pages respectively, or perhaps it just that the pagination is different in the different formats, but a difference of almost 75% is hard to believe is due simply to pagination. ( )

The book consists of a short overview of the military history of WWII with an introduction about Britain in and after WWI, and a final essay about the social effects of WWII on postwar Britain. This is interspersed with memories of his life during the war. There are also two stories in the military history taken from his aquaintances who served in the war.

I can't judge the accuracy of the history. This is just a short sketch, and focuses a lot on numbers. Troops, airplanes, ships of various types, tanks, whether destroyed, built, captured... the numbers seem to be all important. Anyone interested in the war as such will need to read other books.

The most interesting part is his own story of how he experienced the war. However, the author was born in 1936, and he was not allowed to listen to the news on the wireless, so although it is interesting to hear stories of wartime life from the point of view of a small boy, I found it harder to relate to this than to the many books about the period that I have read, both memoirs and fiction, that covered wider aspects than were visible to him. It would have been interesting to have this this part of the book expanded on.

What this book certainly does not do is answer the question in the subtitle, 'What was life like during the war?' ( )

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. It took me awhile to get around to reading it because it was only available in PDF and I have a nook so it was itty bitty text.

[Britain at War 1939 to 1945: What was life like during the war?] by [James Lingard] starts out with personal account from him as a child during the war. This is well written and a very interesting perspective. The book continues to be well written and informative but loses that personal narrative as the author just begins relating the history of the war. It would have been better if he just focused on the narrative from the point of view of Britain rather than give a history lecture. ( )