Category: Second World War

• Plenty of free stories to add to your TBR pile!

  And your chance to enjoy this tender story of family and friendship… …taking you back to the days when the kind embrace of community helped to ease troubled times… Divided we Fall ​’Divided we Fall’​ is the first in a series of six novellas, exploring how the townsfolk of the sleepy seaside resort of Tamarisk…

  Isabella Muir

  April 25, 2024

  crime fiction, family life, Janie Juke, mysteries, Second World War, social history, writing

• A chance to be heard

  As I try to unpick the relationship between the people and the politicians in post-war Britain I’m reflecting on some of the key events when the populace had a chance to express their opinion. Labour Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, had enjoyed five years of leading a majority government, following Labour’s landslide victory just two months…

  Isabella Muir

  July 26, 2022

  politics, Post war Britain, research, Second World War, social history

  Conservatives, electoral system, Labour government, political history, Second World War, social history, welfare state

• From top down to bottom up…

  To help me get into the mindset of my fictional characters I have spent the last few years researching recent history. Those of you who are familiar with my novels will know they are all set during the iconic decade of the 1960s, a time when Britain experienced a significant cultural shift. To explore the…

  Isabella Muir

  July 22, 2022

  family life, Post war Britain, research, Second World War, social history

  political change, popular uprisings, protests, research, Second World War, social history, swinging sixties

• What’s your number?

  Originally posted on Outset Publishing: Nowadays telecommunication is considered so vital that even some children have mobile phones. Yet in 1940s Britain a landline telephone was so rare that barely ten percent of households had one. And if you did decide to have a phone installed you might choose to have a shared line to…

  Isabella Muir

  June 3, 2022

  family life, Post war Britain, Second World War, social history

  family life, Second World War, social history

• What a ball!

  Originally posted on Outset Publishing: After the six years of the Second World War, when sport of any kind was certainly limited, and at times and in certain places, non-existent, the cessation of hostilities brought fans of every sport flooding back into stadia. The archetypal English game of cricket saw its first full season in…

  Isabella Muir

  May 15, 2022

  family life, Post war Britain, Second World War

• A new shopping experience

  Originally posted on Outset Publishing: The food shopping experience of the 1940s was very different from that of today. https://isabellamuir.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/640px-customer_making_a_purchase_in_a_grocery_shop_during_the_second_world_war._d2374.jpg Customer making a purchase in a grocery shop during the Second World War. Interior view of a grocer’s shop with goods piled high on and behind the counter. The grocer offers a product to a…

  Isabella Muir

  May 13, 2022

  family life, Post war Britain, Second World War

• What a show!

  Originally posted on Outset Publishing: Perhaps it was the darkness of the war years that drew people to the lightness and creativity of British theatre. Although what some have called a period of ‘modernism’ started years before the 1940s – in fact, elements of modernist approaches to art, design and theatre can be traced to…

  Isabella Muir

  May 8, 2022

  family life, Post war Britain, Second World War