War Damage

War Damage

by ElizabethWilson (Author)

Synopsis

London in the aftermath of WW2 is a beaten down, hungry place, so it's no wonder that Regine Milner's Sunday house parties in her Hampstead home are so popular. Everyone comes to Reggie's on a Sunday: ballet dancers and cabinet ministers, left-over Mosleyites alongside flamboyant homosexuals like Freddie Buckingham. And when Freddie turns up dead on the Heath one Sunday night there is no shortage of suspects. War Damage is both a high-class thriller and a wonderful evocation of Britain staggering back to its feet after the privations of the War. And in Regine Milner it possesses a truly memorable heroine. She's full of secrets - just what did happen in Shanghai before the war? - and surprises - Reggie's living proof that sexual experimentation was alive and well long before the sixties.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: Main
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Published: 09 Apr 2009

ISBN 10: 1846686504
ISBN 13: 9781846686504

Media Reviews
[A] first class whodunit...The portrait of Austerity Britain is masterfully done...the most fascinating character in this impressive work is the exhausted capital itself. -- Julia Handford * Sunday Telegraph *
[Wilson] evokes louche, bohemian NW3 with skill and relish -- John O'Connell * Guardian *
The era of austerity after the Second World War makes an entertaining and convincing backdrop to Elizabeth Wilson's fine second novel, War Damage...A delight to read -- Marcel Berlins * The Times *
This book is as stylish as one would hope. An evocative, escapist tale of murder and secrecy in post-war London, War Damage paints a picture of a city that, way before the '60s (even in the rubble of the Blitz), was swinging -- Lauren Laverne * Grazia *
War Damage captures the murky, exhausted feel of post war London. Buildings and lives are being reconstructed and shady pasts covered over. The atmosphere of secrecy and claustrophobia is as thick as the swirling dust of recently bombed buildings. Wilson excels at a good story set in exquisite period detail -- Jane Cholmeley
Cultural historian Elizabeth Wilson used post-second World War austerity Britain as the setting for a crime novel in her atmospheric The Twilight Hour (2006), set around bohemian Fitzrovia and Brighton in 1947. In this loose sequel, she again brilliantly evokes that bleak world of bomb sites and food shortages...Wilson presents a nation struggling to get back on its feet, but she does not overdo the period detail...Regine is an idiosyncratic, vivid protagonist -- Peter Guttridge * Observer *
[A] sleek and vivid period piece * Gay Times *
War Damage is a superb historical thriller, as thick with ideas, observations and atmosphere as the London fogs it so eloquently describes -- Mike Ripley * Shots Ezine *
Fantastically atmospheric... with the sort of breathy dialogue that reminds you of Brief Encounter * Sunday Express *
An elegantly nostalgic, noir thriller; brilliantly conjures up the rackety confusion of Cold War London * Daily Mail *
Brilliantly captures the great city trying to come back to life after the privations of the war. -- N/A * Good Book Guide *
Author Bio
An independent researcher and writer best known for her commentaries on feminism and popular culture, Elizabeth Wilson is currently Visiting Professor at the London College of Fashion. She is the author of several non-fiction books. Her novel The Twilight Hour (9781852424770) is also published by Serpent's Tail.