BLITZ SPIRIT 1939-1945

The Mass-Observation Archive is a priceless time capsule of ordinary voices that might otherwise have been forgotten. Throughout WW2, hundreds of people kept diaries of their private daily lives as part of a ground-breaking national experiment. They were warehousemen and WRENs, soldiers and farmhands, housewives and journalists, united only by a desire to record the history they were living through. These voices tell the very human story behind the iconic events of those six years, individuals grappling with a world turned upside down, from panic-buying and competitively digging for victory, to extraordinary acts of bravery, these experiences represent the best and worst of human nature in the face of adversity. A textile warehouseman from Birmingham on 5th September 1939 wrote: 'Mrs B - a medium, says she has been in touch with the spirit of Napoleon, who informed her that the war would last for 61 years. If I live I shall be 86 when peace comes. A leaden thought.' There are teachers, journalist and writers, artists, music teachers, widowed housewives, actors and accountants, laboratory technicians and personnel managers, vicars and farmers, each given their Diarist number, occupation, place and date. 312pp, these words are 'unmoved by what the beastly press says.'