Will Loxley

An exploration of London during WWII via the literary world based there. Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Orwell, Dylan Thomas, Stephen Spender, John Lehmann, Cyril Connolly. Auden, Isherwood and the impact of their moving to the US. How does art have a role during war? Should creatives be political or not?

In the last part of the book I learned how in actual fact the most famous WWI poems now were actually written before the poets had actually experienced any action (ie Brooke and Owen especially), and later poems by some that were inspired by action are less well known.

A bit denser in the last quarter, but well worth the read for anyone interested in Bloomsbury, a different perspective of war as a civilian in a city.… (mehr)