Blitz One Family's War

Blitz tells the story of an ordinary family living happily in the East End as war breaks out in 1939. Their world is quickly turned upside down as Dad leaves to fight, there are air raids and nights spent sheltering from the bombing in underground stations, emerging to find destruction the following morning, and experiencing loss and grief.

The story focuses on the home front, but readers also gain glimpses of the broader theatre of war as we learn about the Dunkirk evacuations and a little of the experience of soldiers through dad’s letters home. We even meet Churchill on a brief tour of the bomb-damaged East End.

The design of this large-scale graphic book is striking. The watercolour illustrations are sensitive, full of warmth, detail and drama and occasionally a little humour too. Although the pictures do most of the storytelling, there are some memorable and moving lines such as ‘the sky cried with us,’ when dad decides he must leave and ‘our lives seemed to be lived in layers,’ describing nights spent underground in air raid shelters.  The difficulty decisions adults were forced to make is explored, including Dad pondering on whether to leave his family and join up and Mum, on whether to send her older children away to safety.  The font style chosen evokes the era, resembling an old typewriter with a more handwritten style used for dad’s letters home and a dramatic font for radio announcements.

This is a work of fiction, but it was inspired by childhood stories about the author’s grandparents whose house was destroyed in bombing. Some original documents are included such as a warden’s report form at the back of the book.

Very moving, powerful and visually stunning, this book would provide an important insight into the experience of city children during the Second World War for present day children. It would also have relevance to all children experiencing or hearing about conflicts today. A follow up book is planned focused on the evacuation experience. Highly recommended.