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The Black-out Book: One-Hundred-and-One Black-out Nights' Entertainment (General Military)

The Black-out Book: One-Hundred-and-One Black-out Nights' Entertainment (General Military)

by Mike Brown (Author), Mike Brown (Author), Evelyn August (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2009

    $3.25
Synopsis

As the haunting air raid sirens of World War II echoed around blacked out streets, the people of London and other British cities would gather together in tube stations, tunnels, railway arches, basements and makeshift shelters at the bottom of gardens, fearful of what the night might bring from the dark skies. Here, in these cramped refuges, families and strangers would find comfort and distraction in the form of games, stories and jokes. Evelyn August brings together over five hundred games, pensees, puzzles, jokes and literary snippets which provided some amusement during the long nights of the blitz. From 'A thought for the petrol-rationed motorist' and 'Prayers of the Great' (Henry VIII, Raleigh, Plato), to 'What happened to the shilling?' and 'What to do when sleep won't come', The Black-out Book provides an insight into the pastimes and distractions sought during the blitz. Entertaining to all, nostalgic for many, what emerges in this fascinating book is the spirit and humour of the British people during the terrifying black-out nights of World War II.

$3.25

Save:$9.28 (74%)

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 224
 Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 10 Oct 2009
ISBN 10: 1846039231
ISBN 13: 9781846039232

Media Reviews

The Black-Out Book...really is something that still fulfils its purpose of helping to while away a spare moment. We may not have any air raids going on at the moment, thank goodness, but the world still has plenty of troubles and we need to be distracted from time to time to keep our heads. --Bill Purdue, Bill Purdue's Book Blog (November 2009)

The Black-out Book collects some of August's wartime-effort work. There are brainteasers, riddles, cartoons, poems, astronomy lessons, limericks, trivia, quotes, word games and other miscellany, all as presented originally, with vintage illustrations and fonts. August's style is buttoned-up British as ever, which makes the book radiate with a slight time-capsule charm. --Rod Lott, Bookgasm.com (January 2010)

As I flipped through The Black-Out Book with amusement, I still could not help it but ask myself how many war time children kept themselves occupied with the very same puzzles and games that I had just read? How many parents, while reading the limericks from this book to their children, used this book to get away from missing their loved ones on the front lines or to take their minds off of the possibility that German bombers might arrive over their cities that night? --C. Peter Chen, World War II Database, ww2db.com (March 2010)

Author Bio
Born in Beckenham in 1907, the late Sydney Box (1907-83) was a writer and film producer, producing such classics as The Seventh Veil (1945, which won him a best screenplay Oscar), Holiday Camp and Quartet. His film company Verity Films produced over 100 propaganda shorts for the government and the services during the Second World War. Managing director of Gainsborough Pictures (1946-49), he became an independent producer in the 1950s, forming Sydney Box Associates. Most of his screenplays were written in collaboration with his late wife, Muriel. Their collaborative work was published under the pseudonym Evelyn August. The Muriel and Sydney Box Collection is located at the British Film Institute.