The Little Wartime Library

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What works so well is that there is no guarantee of a happy ending for anyone, creating moments of deep emotion. Satisfying layers of depth These ‘youngsters’ are now in their nineties, and memories of the little library are embedded in their hearts. “It was a sanctuary to me,” Pat, now 92 and living in Berkshire, told me. “By 1943, I was 14 and there had been so much horror, the Blitz, the Tube disaster. You can’t imagine what that library represented to me as a place of safety. It sparked a life-long love of reading.” Libraries in converted shops, in village halls, in mobile vans, are common enough. But libraries in Tube shelters are something new under the sun,” Stanley wrote with pride. I’ve become rather jaded by book titles containing the word ‘little’ but here it is incredibly apt. The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson is a heart-warming tale of friendship and resilience in tough times during the war in 1944. This story is based on true events.

I love the two women who run the underground library and how resilient they are and I love most of the other characters as well. I love the world building and how much research the author does include in the book as well. History isn’t about dates and battlefields, leaders, and royalty. It’s about ordinary people getting on with the business of living, in spite of such unforgiving odds. And somehow in the process always managing to hold hard to hope. My favourite character throughout was Ruby. Bold, brassy and brave she epitomised the bulldog tenacity of the Eastend people. She's certainly someone you would want to have as an ally. She was, almost, like Clara's conscience. Encouraging her and pushing her to do things she might have let go. The friendship between them was special. Clara must fight some adversity and people who are against what she is trying to do, as the war drags on Clara’s strength is tested many times over but she never gives up, with the Germans dropping their new bombs many people from the underground are affected and there are many tears shed. Clara meets ambulance worker Billy Clark when he jumps in and helps her when needed most, and Clara is a widow and soon she is seeing her heart open to Billy but he holds a secret that will cause problems.With a cast of colourful East Enders the novel is a deep dive into an unrecognisable time and place. Running throughout the story is an emphasis on reading for pleasure and as entertainment and escapism to take one away from the harsh realities of the wider world. Clara soon finds herself at odds with the posh library committee manager when he implies she would be doing a better service to keep her patrons away from romance and point them towards more educational fare. This is the first of many battles that Clara and Ruby have with their snooty boss, Mr Pinkerton-Smythe, who has the temerity to dismiss Clara as “just a Children’s librarian” and soon find himself on the wrong side of half of Bethnal Green! Chapters alternate between focusing on Clara and Ruby and, as two very different but quite complex characters, this works well and keeps the story moving along at a pace. Although both women find themselves with male admirers it’s far from plain sailing with turmoil aplenty along the way, and not just in their love lives. Kate Thompson is unafraid to present difficult issues like domestic abuse, loss, guilt and mental health problems. Yet they never make the story maudlin or depressing. I can’t deny that I’m a huge fan of Kate Thompson’s brilliantly brought-to-life books but I think The Little Wartime Libraryis probably her best yet. These “youngsters” are now in their 90s and memories of the little library are embedded in their hearts.

Based on real life events, Kate Thompson has penned a beautifully written fictional story, which oozes strength and courage, resilience, resistance, and defiance. And the mainstay at the heart of this story is Clara Button. Heartbreakingly, that home was tinged with horror one night in March 1943 when 173 people died in a human crush on theuneven steps down to the shelter. ARP wardens worked alongside housewives and boy scouts to save the injured. Mrs Chumbley wrenched children free from the crush with such force their shoes were left behind. It was three hours before the last casualty was pulled out. Bunk beds in the tunnels at Bethnal Green underground station: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives 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. This book made me so angry. Angry at the closed minds and attitudes against women, reading and children. Mr Pinkerton-Smythe is just one example of the judgmental and wrong attitudes that abound. Sadly, it is not only the men either. Some of the women’s blinkered attitudes are just as bad. The other thing that made me my blood boil is the horror that is war and the lives lost. And the blind eye turned to the abuse dished out to women on a regular basis by their husbands.

I loved every word of this book. Kate Thompson’s research is, as always, impeccable. She brings the East End’s characters and war-weary to life in a way that never fails to enchant me. I’m envious of readers who have yet to experience The Little Wartime Library. Definitely a five-star read that I can’t recommend highly enough. Books are for everybody. In a society where women shouldn’t read too much and children are considered just a nuisance, Clara strongly believes not only that everybody should read, but that they should be allowed to read any kind of book they want. Girls shouldn’t be forced to read only books “for girls”. Romance and fiction are as good as non-fiction. During the first week of the blitz, the Bethnal Green library was destroy, due to the war, construction of the Bethnal Green tube station had stopped and the vast empty space wasn’t being used. Despite losing her mentor, Clara Button and her assistant Ruby Munroe open an underground library and a sanctuary in London's East End. The role of the library during war -- based on a true story -- is revealed in this gripping historical novel featuring courageous librarian Clara and her lively assistant Ruby: When Clara comes across two sisters from Jersey, she is determined to befriend them and help them in any wayshe can. As hard as it is for those from the East end she’s certain that it must be even more terrifying for two young women who aren’t even from London. Not all people want Clara and Ruby’s help though and some are even determined to make their lives as difficult as possible. Everyone around them has difficulties they’re battling to survive and when Clara meets a kind but mysterious Samaritan she has a whole new struggle on her hands.