The Little Wartime Library

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Kate Thompson’s exploration of what the ‘little’ person can achieve in the face of adversity is truly inspirational. 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.

Wonderful quotations from real people appear at the beginning of each chapter, and there are references to known, much loved, books. In this way The Little Wartime Library is not only a warm, engaging and entertaining 1940s story, but is a glorious love letter to libraries, librarians and the sheer joy of reading. The narrations were split between Clara and Ruby. Clara stands up to injustice – particularly when it comes to lending out what have been deemed ‘restricted’ books. The crowd murmurs in anticipation. There is a drumroll. The presenter is given the envelope. It’s opened and I say….. From a journalist to a ghost-writer, British author Kate Thompson has published a range of books over the last 20 years. In her most recent publication, Thompson has penned a story about strength, resilience, resistance, courage and the power of the written word. Drawn from real life events, The Little Wartime Library is an engrossing title that will rouse all Second World War fiction fans.I’ve become rather jaded by book titles containing the word ‘little’ but here it is incredibly apt.

This has to be one of my best books of 2022. Yes I realise we’ve barely woken up from the new year celebrations but this is such a wonderful story, beautifully told that I am sure I am going to be hard pressed to find a match to this. These ‘youngsters’ are now in their nineties, and memories of the little library are embedded in their hearts. “It was a sanctuary to me,” Pat, now 92 and living in Berkshire, told me. “By 1943, I was 14 and there had been so much horror, the Blitz, the Tube disaster. You can’t imagine what that library represented to me as a place of safety. It sparked a life-long love of reading.” This novel is inspired by real life events that took place at Bethnal Green during WWII and saw the half-finished tube station turned into a fully-functioning subterranean community sleeping up to five thousand and served by an astonishing array of facilities including a library. The story opens in March 1944 when widowed Children’s librarian, Clara Button, finds herself at the helm of the underground library having stepped in after the overground library was bombed in the first week of the Blitz and her boss died. Ably assisted by her best friend, irrepressible Ruby, both set aside their own heartache to keep the community library seventy-eight feet underground operating whilst the bombing continues. Alongside issuing books, chatting to the lonely, running a nightly storytime for the children sleeping down the shelter and a reading group that causes a stir, there are laughter, tears, company and moral support for all. But for all Ruby’s chutzpah and Clara’s steely determination both have their own personal tragedies, specifically the death of Clara’s husband at Dunkirk five years earlier and Ruby’s sister’s death a year earlier in the fatal crushing incident on the steps that house the Bethnal Green tube shelter. Both of these traumas are memorably well-explored and resonate throughout the story. Sometimes it only takes a glance at the title to know that herein lies a soulmatch book. Library love, WWII London underground community, and the resourceful spirit of a pair of women librarians and the community of the Bethnal Green underground tugged at my heart and left only satisfaction in their wake.

Satisfying layers of depth

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! 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. I can’t deny that I’m a huge fan of Kate Thompson’s brilliantly brought-to-life books but I think The Little Wartime Libraryis probably her best yet.

Any more of these and I'll be on the floor', laughed Alice. 'It's delicious; what's in it, Ruby Red Lips'? 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.Beautifully written with emotion this story is based on true events is heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time as we see Clara and Ruby stand up for the people who need this library, Clara is the most caring person as is Ruby both have been through so much and deserve happiness. I loved getting to know the people who live in this underground world, I cried with them and cheered them one, anyone who loves reading and loves a library must read this story, it truly shows what a library means to so many people. I highly recommend this story, I loved it. My name is Kate. I live in leafy Surrey, England in a haunted former bakery on the banks of the river Thames, with my two sons and two rescue dogs. When Im not writing, I am trying to tire out boys and dogs on endless walks. I loved the feeling this book gave me. The fact that this community, this love of books realty did exist and really did make a difference, was a wonderful thing to discover. I really can’t thank the author enough for finding this story and for being curious enough to write about it, and in this way. Kate I could hug you as I’m sure the people from this novel would too. BookTrail locations in The Little Wartime Library During the war, the facilities were amazing down the Tube; it had everything you needed. There was even a mobile hairdresser, who used to come down the tunnels doing people’s hair out in rags before bed so they woke up with nice curly hair. Terrific!