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Lovers and Strangers
Lovers and Strangers
Sep 21, 2024 4:50 AM

Author:Clair Wills

Lovers and Strangers

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018

TLS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017

'Generous and empathetic ... opens up postwar migration in all its richness' Sukhdev Sandhu, Guardian

'Groundbreaking, sophisticated, original, open-minded ... essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not only the transformation of British society after the war but also its character today' Piers Brendon, Literary Review

'Lyrical, full of wise and original observations' David Goodhart, The Times

The battered and exhausted Britain of 1945 was desperate for workers - to rebuild, to fill the factories, to make the new NHS work. From all over the world and with many motives, thousands of individuals took the plunge. Most assumed they would spend just three or four years here, sending most of their pay back home, but instead large numbers stayed - and transformed the country.

Drawing on an amazing array of unusual and surprising sources, Clair Wills' wonderful new book brings to life the incredible diversity and strangeness of the migrant experience. She introduces us to lovers, scroungers, dancers, homeowners, teachers, drinkers, carers and many more to show the opportunities and excitement as much as the humiliation and poverty that could be part of the new arrivals' experience. Irish, Bengalis, West Indians, Poles, Maltese, Punjabis and Cypriots battled to fit into an often shocked Britain and, to their own surprise, found themselves making permanent homes. As Britain picked itself up again in the 1950s migrants set about changing life in their own image, through music, clothing, food, religion, but also fighting racism and casual and not so casual violence.

Lovers and Strangers is an extremely important book, one that is full of enjoyable surprises, giving a voice to a generation who had to deal with the reality of life surrounded by 'white strangers' in their new country.

Reviews

A lyrical account... deeply researched and full of wise and original observations about migration

—— David Goodhart , The Times

Strangers and Lovers is brimming with new archival sources, careful cullings of governmental documents and oral histories - the book encompasses poetry and fiction as well as sociological accounts.

—— Sukhdev Sandhu , Guardian

Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not only the transformation of British society after the war but also its character today

—— Piers Brendon , Literary Review

Masterful... these are the stories of Britain's yesterdays, todays and tomorrows, and they could hardly be more timely.

—— Christopher Kissane , Financial Times

Her well-written, readable story evolves like a novel or film script with key characters.

—— Times Higher Education

What you get in Lovers and Strangers is a mix of oral history, scholarly analysis and impressionistic essay

—— Clive Davis , The Times

The perfect post-Brexit book

—— Arifa Akbar , Evening Standard

Lovers and Strangers presents a historically rich view of immigration to Britain. Wills writes with both humour and detail about the lives of thousands of single men from Poland, Ireland, the West Indies and South Asia. Many of her tales are filled with the music, alcohol and nightlife which occupied the attentions of thousands of single men

—— Burhan Wazir , Chatham House

Quirky, lively history, full of unexpected detail.

—— Simple Things

Amiable new history of the public park… He turns up lots of interesting, joyful stuff along the way. He’s particularly good on our forebears’ taste for the ersatz… A Walk in the Park is an enjoyable stroll.

—— Rachel Cooke , Guardian

Fast-paced and richly peopled… Ebullient and enamored of his heroes is Elborough.

—— Gillian Darley , Literary Review

Highly enjoyable.

—— Sunday Times

Elborough's quietly effervescent style manages to transform the reader from being someone with a passing interest in whatever topic he happens to be writing about into a fully-fledged Routemaster/LP/London loon.

—— Travel Guide

Elborough writes in an aptly meandering style with an appetite for the eccentric marginalia of history

—— Ben Felsenburg , Mail on Sunday

[It is] quirky and original.

—— Times Literary Supplement

[A Walk in the Park is] wittily written and wide-ranging.

—— French Property News, Book of the Year

In The Butchering Art, Lindsey Fitzharris becomes our Dante, leading us through the macabre hell of nineteenth-century surgery to tell the story of Joseph Lister, the man who solved one of medicine's most daunting - and lethal - puzzles. With gusto, Dr. Fitzharris takes us into the operating 'theaters' of yore, as Lister awakens to the true nature of the killer that turned so many surgeries into little more than slow-moving executions. Warning: She spares no detail!

—— Erik Larson , bestselling author of Dead Wake and The Devil in the White City

With an eye for historical detail and an ear for vivid prose, Lindsey Fitzharris tells a spectacular story about one of the most important moments in the history of medicine-the rise of sterile surgery. The Butchering Art is a spectacular book-deliciously gruesome and utterly gripping. You will race through it, wincing as you go, but never wanting to stop

—— Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes

An absolutely fascinating and grisly read that vividly brings to life the world of the Victorian operating theatre

—— Catharine Arnold , author of Bedlam and Necropolis

Fitzharris slices into medical history with this excellent biography of Joseph Lister, the 19th-century "hero of surgery." ... She infuses her thoughtful and finely crafted examination of this revolution with the same sense of wonder and compassion Lister himself brought to his patients, colleagues, and students

—— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

The Butchering Art is medical history at its most visceral and vivid. It will make you forever grateful to Joseph Lister, the man who saved us from the horror of pre-antiseptic surgery, and to Lindsey Fitzharris, who brings to life the harrowing and deadly sights, smells, and sounds of a nineteenth-century hospital

—— Caitlin Doughty , bestselling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity

Fascinating and shocking ... [Fitzharris] offers an important reminder that, while many regard science as the key to progress, it can only help in so far as people are willing to open their minds to embrace change

—— Kirkus (Starred Review)

Roper’s Luther is an angry man: a renegade and a rebel… [She] paints a vivid picture of the political and economic context in Mansfeld, where Luther grew up, and of the situation of Wittenberg and its political governance. There are important findings here, particularly relating to Luther’s early life

—— Charlotte Methuen , The Times Literary Supplement

Roper writes with the virtuosity of an unsurpassed archival researcher, the grace of an elegant stylist, and the compassion of a seasoned student of human nature. Her nuanced and insightful portrait brilliantly evokes the inner and outer worlds of the man Luther. The book is a complete triumph.

—— Joel F. Harrington, author of The Faithful Executioner

Magnificent and surely definitive – a work of immense scholarship, acute psychological insight and gloriously fluent prose. Lyndal Roper has got under the skin of her subject and the result is thrilling.

—— Jessie Childs, author of Henry VIII’s Last Victim and God’s Traitors

Roper’s scholarly strengths plus 10 years of careful research have yielded a richly contextualised biography of a man whose influence has been and remains enormous, for good or ill or both.

—— Brad Gregory , Tablet

This is a helpful and insightful examination of Luther’s attitudes and relationships… Highly recommended.

—— Martin Wellings , Methodist Recorder

Roper portrays a deeply flawed but fascinating human being to rival any of the major personalities of Tudor England.

—— Caroline Sanderson , Bookseller

I heartily commend Martin Luther… It is simply the best English-language biography of Luther I’ve read and I’d be amazed if its combination of rigorous scholarship and approachable tone is bettered.

—— Francis Philips , Catholic Herald, Book of the Year

[A] superb new biography… A challenging and deeply stimulating study of a major historical figure.

—— Elaine Fulton , History Today

The work of a brilliant scholar, who had devoted years of research to the project, and it repays careful reading… There are rich treasures in the book, without a bout. Roper has a great gift for narrative… Roper’s exploration of the cultural and social world of the Saxon miners is masterly… Fascinating.

—— Euan Cameron , Church Times

A probing psychological account.

—— Very Rev. Professor Iain Torrence , Herald Scotland
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