Jacky Hyams Libri Migliori da leggere e consigliati

The Spitfire Story, published in association with Imperial War Museums, is a fascinating anthology of first-hand stories from Spitfire heroes and heroines, as well as the people behind the scenes. The Spitfire is the world’s most iconic aeroplane. Coming into its own during the Battle of Britain, it became famous during the Second World War as the only plane that could match the enemy fighters in the sky. Yet, even today, the history of the Spitfire contains many hitherto hidden or little-known stories of the men and women behind the plane; not only the gifted creators and inventors who brought the Spitfire to life, or the brave fighter pilots from many countries who triumphed in battle, but also the thousands of other people whose lives were affected by their personal connection to it – engineers, ground crew, factory or office workers, and their families. The Spitfire Story recounts the memories and stories of these people, from the birth of the iconic Spitfire in the 1930s to the present day. Among these accounts is the extraordinary tale of the fighter pilot who only discovered, fifty years on, the tragic truth of his last Spitfire flight, the businessman whose blank cheque changed the course of the war, the ninety-five-year-old Royal Air Force engineer who was determined to be reunited with his beloved Spit before he died, and the little girl who inspired the plane’s creation – and went on to marry a movie star. Using documents, letters and photographs from the Imperial War Museums’ unparalleled archive, plus exclusive first-hand interviews, these stories of the Spitfire are a revelatory collection of small but significant histories, to be treasured by all who love and admire the iconic plane.

The place is London, and the year is 1966. It’s a time when anything seems possible, especially if you are a young, free-spirited, mini-skirted girl in search of adventure and independence. An incredible explosion of pop music, fashion and youth culture has turned London into the most ‘swinging’ city on earth. Youthful energy and boundless optimism are everywhere. Whatever tou want – sexual freedom, jobs, fashionable clothes, social change – it’s all up for grabs. It’s a world of souped-up Minis, ad men, conmen, typewriters, bed-hopping, tragic love affairs, flat sharing, spies from behind the Iron Curtain and Fleet Street’s smoky, scruffy pub life. At the centre of this vibrant world is Jacky Hyams, a headstrong, pleasure-seeking party girl with a tough East End background, who is determined to throw off her past and make the most of everything on offer. In the follow up to her bestselling memoir Bombsites and Lollipops, Jacky takes a nostalgia-tinged look back to the years when Britain changed forever, a decade moving swiftly from the revolutionary fervour and excitement of the freewheeling Swinging Sixties, to the bleaker times of the strike bound, cash-strapped Seventies.

Tuesday, 8 May 1945: Victory in Europe Day. A day of joyous celebration, as the end of a conflict which had engulfed the world came within touching distance. Millions of people celebrated in the streets throughout Britain. Yet not all was right in the world. Struggles remained ahead – war still raged on between the Allies and Japan. Agreements and treaties were yet to be forged. Lives continued to be lost around the world. Meanwhile in Britain, although the pressure of supporting active military campaigns was reduced, lives were irrevocably changed in other ways. Bonds forged by the momentum of struggle, by hardship, unity and common purpose would begin to fade, and give way to the wounds of sorrow, upheaval and trauma that six years of conflict had riven. What was it really like to be living in Britain as the war drew to a close, giving way to a new era of hope, but also of deep uncertainty? In The Day the War Ended, bestselling author Jacky Hyams delivers a sweeping story, weaving together illuminating untold stories with contemporary records and photographs. The result is a moving, personal insight into hearts and minds across the home front right through the momentous year of 1945, as war ended and ‘everything after’ took root, shaping the world we know today.

Sunday, 3 September 1939: the dawn of a new conflict that would engulf the world, following the words of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: ‘This country is at war with Germany’. By the time World War II ended in 1945, nearly half a million people from Britain and its empire had lost their lives, and the world had changed forever. Eighty years on, a look back at the lives of British people in September 1939 reveals a very different world from the one we know today. Unprecedented hardship lay ahead for a country where free healthcare for all was unknown: strict rationing of food and petrol, conscription for both sexes, and personal tragedy year after year amidst the chaos of Britain’s bombed out cities and ports. What was it really like to be living in Britain in September 1939? The Day the War Broke Out is a fresh insight into the hearts and minds of a nation on that fateful day. With exclusive personal interviews, untold stories, wartime diaries and newspaper reports, it reveals the innermost fears and hopes of a society on the brink of war: through the eyes of young mothers fearful for their families, bewildered children painfully cut adrift from loved ones, and men of all ages, many now facing combat for the second time in their lives. These are personal, intimate snapshots from eighty years ago – when the entire world, virtually overnight, seemed to have been turned upside down – and of how a nation faced this new world with courage, humour and stoicism.