Mollie Panter-Downes

In this collection of short stories, written between 1939 and 1944, many aspects of English domestic life during the War are explored including separation, sewing parties, and evacuees.

Every fortnight throughout the war, Panter-Downes wrote a “Letter from London” for The New Yorker, giving American readers a glimpse into life during wartime, as civilians dealt with rationing and bombs, suffered victories and defeats. This book contains all of the letters and provides some perfectly observed portraits of wartime England.

Published in 1931 in the immediate aftermath of D H Lawrences Lady Chatterleys Lover controversy, Mollie Panter-Downes's book explores the different echelons of the increasingly self-conscious middle class and the ways in which the tensions and nuances of vocabulary, dress, occupation, politics, taste and, ultimately, the literary world contribute to the incompatibility of a marriage.