The Battle of London 1939-45

The Battle of London 1939-45... benefits hugely from a vast and well-chosen range of quotes and anecdotes, conjuring the atmosphere of a city under siege with vivid force. What's most striking in this raw and comprehensive portrait of a city on fire is just how enchanting and appealing it is: you actually start wishing you had been alive to witness it

Sebastian Milbank, Tablet

[An] impressive history of the capital at war... White, an accomplished chronicler of London's history, tells it with brio and a confident mastery of the sources. He has a good nose for a piquant anecdote and clear-eyed awareness of the failings as well as the fearlessness of Londoners

Alan Allport, Literary Review

Jerry White has a unique relation to London and Londoners. More than a historian, he is the city's witness, champion and town-crier... White does not rehearse the cliché of the Blitz spirit. Instead, by giving narrative commentary to the bit players in the drama...he presents a more complex, bleak and confused tale

Frances Wilson, Oldie

As a history of the capital in wartime, it is probably unsurpassable... From the Myra Hess lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, to the extraordinary resilience and bravery of Londoners... all can be found in this book

Anne de Courcy, Sunday Telegraph

Endlessly fascinating... White is such a brilliant historian: he casts his net way beyond the usual territories. His books are consequently peppered with colourful vignettes drawn from all sort of unconventional sources, high and low

Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

This fascinating social history is pieced together as a mosaic of dozens of experiences... White does not shy away from dismantling some of the dearly held myths about the Blitz spirit, but equally his compassion and fondness for London shines through on every page... a rich tapestry of life under fire in the capital.

Katja Hoyer, Spectator

The definitive and most readable account of the city during the conflict. The Battle of London 1939-45 is the most meticulously researched social history of wartime London that one could ever hope to find... the detail is woven together in such a way, and so colourfully, that it frequently pulls the reader up short with the realisation that the author did not actually experience himself all that he writes about... Almost every page contains a riveting and truly astonishing revelation about that fascinating period in the city's history

History of War

White's account is a vivid and highly accessible insight into how ordinary life both turned upside-down and continued in a 'new normal' during a once-in-a-generation emergency that we can now all relate to

Harry Verity, Who Do You Think You Are?

Both the terror and the calmness in Jerry White's exemplary social history of London during the war years... [an] illuminating...tour de force

Colin Shindler, Jewish Chronicle