The Little Wartime Library

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Bethnal Green’s secret Underground wartime library offers up a remarkable story that reveals how, even in the darkest of times, working-class East Enders had access to books, entertainment and culture.

This is a remarkable novel inspired by the even more remarkable real life story of a library under ground! The library is the one at Bethnal Green in a disused tube station during the war. The enforced silence just compounded the survivors’ feelings of guilt. Rescuers’ hair turned grey overnight, whole families were torn apart – Patsy lost five members of her family on her father’s side. While the book is filled with a lot of heart-wrenching moments, it left me feeling so much love for the characters and story. The writing was perfection and it was easy to devour. The Little Wartime Library is easily one of my favourite books this year and absolutely worth the read. This book is a shining testament to the strength of women during the war.

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Young childless widow Clara Button is doing her bit for the war effort, running Britain’s only Underground Shelter Library.... Our barbarous foes may be hell-bent on burning London to the ground, but beneath the city’s surface, Mrs. Button calmly carries on stamping books and ensuring everyone has a thumping good read to take their mind off the bombs."

Romance sat alongside literary classics, children’s books, poetry and plays. Treasure Island, The Secret Garden and many other classics, including Enid Blyton, nourished young minds and helped children to escape the nightmares above.Based on the real history of the Bethnal Green Library, Thompson’s book reveals that although COVID and The Blitz are both very different, the effect on reading has been the same. Books, in both cases, were “a key weapon in the fight for morale.” The Blitz revealed the need to have equal access to reading material and the stigma of reading for relaxation lifted. Covid revealed the need for equal access to information via the internet. We may not have had the bibliobus that the East Enders had, but our community had a book bicycle that travelled between communities to the shut-ins. I’ll never forget the first time I re-entered the library after the restrictions were lifted. The protocols were worth every effort. The characters are the highlight of this delightful book. Clara, a war widow, had every reason to be bitter. She disregards her ‘imposed upon’ obligations and her losses and channels her energy into providing equal opportunity books to everyone in the secret community. Ruby has a big heart and puts others before herself, desperately wanting to hide her inner unhappiness and loss. You’ll be in awe of the sense of community the author creates and come to love many of the library patrons.

Young librarian and widow Clara Button works in the underground library during WW2. The library is located in the disused tube station in Bethnal Green. It’s an actual godsend in many ways = not only from the bombs but from the daily grind. This is where people can meet and talk as well as there being so many books there! I loved the people who worked there and I felt I really got to know them very well really early on. So many families are homeless and a safe place is made for them to live underground, five thousand three tiered bunks are installed, it has a café, nursery, theatre and a library. Clara’s a trained librarian and Ruby isn't your typical assistant, between them they make a great team and devise ingenious ways of lending out as many books as they can. Visiting factories and delivering books to shift workers, holding a nightly story time for the children, starting a boozy book club for their mothers, and Clara sends a letter to Canada asking for donations of children’s classic books. Finding out about the library was nothing short of magic’ ... Kate Thompson. Photograph: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives Heartbreakingly, that home was tinged with horror one night in March 1943 when 173 people died in a human crush on the uneven steps down to the shelter. ARP wardens worked alongside housewives and boy scouts to save the injured. Mrs Chumbley wrenched children free from the crush with such force their shoes were left behind. It was three hours before the last casualty was pulled out.

A story that thrums with vibrancy

Contrary to popular belief, during the Second World War, not all shelterers slept in an amorphous huddle on a dirty Underground platform. The history of WW2 is full of surprises, mostly tales of unspeakable deprivation, sacrifice and bloodshed, but just occasionally, magic. The Little Wartime Library - мнозина могат да си направят извода, че тя предлага сладък разказ за малка библиотека някъде из Лондон по време на войната. Но ще сбъркат фундаментално! Informative and enlightening, heart-wrenching yet hopeful, this is a story that will stay with me. Fans of historical fiction and stories revolving around libraries would certainly enjoy this novel. I’m really struggling with what to write about this book. I tried to major in the Library Media Specialist program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a major in the program because I was disabled and I want to give a giant shout out to Ann Zarrinia and Eileen Shroeder who ran the department together and the head librarian of the Palmyra Public Library whose name I have forgotten during 2010 which refused to let me complete my internship for not allowing me to complete my major. There’s a very interesting author’s note in the book that mentions librarians helping the mentally disabled and look at how they helped me! Just brilliant!! I can't describe it any other way. The fact it's based on true events adds more layers to it.

The author visiting the spot in Bethnal Green Underground where the library once stood, in the pandemic. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The Little Wartime Library was a haven for people. It did so much more than hand out books. It helped children to learn to read, to come to terms with loss of family to help those living in the underground to bear the long hard years that war brought to their homes and cities. I loved every word of this book. Kate Thompson’s research is, as always, impeccable. She brings the East End’s characters and war-weary to life in a way that never fails to enchant me. I’m envious of readers who have yet to experience The Little Wartime Library. Definitely a five-star read that I can’t recommend highly enough. When you close a library, bad things start to happen in the neighbourhood where the library used to be. The library is the glue that holds a community together and you only miss it after it has gone. " Heartbreakingly, that home was tinged with horror one night in March 1943 when 173 people died in a human crush on theuneven steps down to the shelter. ARP wardens worked alongside housewives and boy scouts to save the injured. Mrs Chumbley wrenched children free from the crush with such force their shoes were left behind. It was three hours before the last casualty was pulled out.

Satisfying layers of depth

Based on real life events, Kate Thompson has penned a beautifully written fictional story, which oozes strength and courage, resilience, resistance, and defiance. And the mainstay at the heart of this story is Clara Button.