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White City
White City
Oct 9, 2024 2:17 PM

Author:Donald James,Michael Jayston

White City

On the morning of 24th February 1944 following a devastating Luftwaffe raid, Donald Wheal and his family were homeless refugees with bulging suitcases and faces blackened by soot blast. In World's End, the first part of his bestselling childhood autobiography, he told of his upbringing during the Blitz in the rough working class community which was Chelsea's World's End. The morning after the World¹s End bombing he realized that the ties that had bound him to the past were now broken -- a new world and a new fate awaited him.

In White City he tells the story of how his family, now menaced by the V-bombs and rockets that were the last stage of London's war, were re-settled in a anonymous London suburb where later his adolescence was to began amidst post war privation, sexual yearning and first love. In these dark years the quest for new experiences took him all around Britain and finally to war-ravaged France. A testing period of National Service in Germany and Italy completed his journey to adulthood.

White City is as funny, heartbreaking and engaging as World's End

Reviews

A truly remarkable story, uncovered with immense skill by Catrine Clay

—— Miranda Seymour, Telegraph

An extraordinary story

—— Mail on Sunday

Britain's best-loved German ... it's a remarkable story

—— Daily Mail

[A] brilliant new biography

—— Observer

Utterly compelling

—— Independent on Sunday

A gripping story

—— Sunday Times

It's the story of Trautmann the man rather than the footballer that makes Catrine Clay's biography so extraordinary...enthralling and uplifting.

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

A stimulating exercise in muscular revisionism ... Offers a fresh and provocative view of our much-loved and much-misunderstood "finest hour"

—— David Reynolds , Guardian

Accessibly written and deserves a wide audience. Above all, Edgerton demonstrates that the war is a subject we haven't yet heard nearly enough about. Britain's War Machine is a considerable achievement

—— Graham Farmelo , Times Higher Education

Edgerton has excelled himself with this highly revisionist account of Britain's national performance during the Second World War ... an unusually provocative book

—— Twentieth Century British History, 2011

Edgerton has written what could prove to be one of the most influential books on the history of the Second World War ... majestic ... [he] has successfully shown us that we still have a lot to learn about the conflict ... it will become the required reading for all students wishing to study the Second World War

—— Reviews in History

An astounding work of myth-busting ... Inspiring and unsettling in equal measure

—— Tom Holland , Guardian

Majestic ... a wonderful read. It has probably popped more myths than any other book on the war in recent years

—— Taylor Downing , History Today

Brilliant and iconoclastic ... debunks the myth that Britain was militarily and economically weak and intellectually parochial during the 1930s and 1940s

—— David Blackburn , Spectator Book Blog

Truly eye-opening ... Edgerton's carefully researched book will fundamentally change the way you think about World War II

—— Daily Beast

Riveting ... a wonderfully rich book ... thoroughly stimulating

—— Richard Toye , History

A major new assessment of Britain's war effort from 1939 to 1945. Never again will some of the lazy assessments of how Britain performed over these years ... be acceptable. That's why this is such an important book

—— History Today

Innovative and most important

—— Contemporary Review

Compelling and engaging ... an excellent read

—— Soldier

Edgerton's well-researched volume bursts with data that reveal Britain's true strength even when supposed to be in critical condition

—— Peter Moreira , Military History

Britain's War Machine offers the boldest revisionist argument that seeks to overturn some of our most treasured assumptions about Britain's role in the war ... Edgerton [is] an economic historian with an army of marshalled facts and figures at his fingertips ... This is truly an eye-opening book that explodes the masochistic myth of poor little Britain, revealing the island as a proud power with the resources needed to fight and win a world war

—— Nigel Jones , Spectator

Masterful Britain's War Machine promotes the notion that the United Kingdom of the Forties was a superpower, with access to millions of men across the globe, and forming the heart of a global production network

—— Mail on Sunday
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