Julie Summers, the bestselling author of Jambusters, lifts the veil on the captivating story of fashion in the Second World War. Accompanying a major new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum.
Julie Summers is the author of Jambusters: the story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War, which inspired ITV's 2015 hugely successful drama Home Fires, now into a second series. She also wrote When the Children Came Home and Stranger in the House, among others. Fashion on the Ration appeared in March 2015. She lives in Oxford.
I would not have thought a book could make me nostalgic for
rationing, but Julie Summers has managed it. A marvellous read.
*Julian Fellowes*
Stirring tales of how women beautified on a budget during the
Second World War
*Mail on Sunday You Magazine*
Anyone tempted to look back in envy for life as portrayed in such
sepia-tinted soaps as Foyle's War should read Fashion On The Ration
... every page makes one increasingly grateful for modern comforts,
and clothes in particular. Few histories capture so simply yet
vividly the monotony and grind of ordinary life for the British at
home, when patriotism and fear were leavened, daily, by the
increasingly irritating restrictions on what people could wear ...
a riveting social history of the kind that looks narrow, yet
encompasses every individual - infants as well as the elderly - who
had to endure these years ... Fashion may look like a trivial
subject but, as Summers shows, it goes to the heart of people's
confidence and mood. Given the sartorial hardship Britain was
obliged to endure, our enduring chuzpah - and victory - seem all
the more remarkable.
*Herald*
A fascinating roadmap for all lovers of fashion.
*Glamour*
A well-researched history
*Saga*
A fantastic book
*Independent*
A charming read ... and a rebuttal of the notion that fashion is a
sideshow to the real business of life; a women only zone.
*Times*
[Full of] glorious details ... This book is a testament to the
courage shown on the home front in a war where every button
mattered. It is also a reproof to those of us with bulging
wardrobes who complain that we don't have a thing to wear.
*Daisy Goodwin*
Wonderful ... Summers handles her source material confidently and
colourfully.
*Daily Telegraph*
Praise for Jambusters:
'Striking, often heart-warming, but sometimes tragic ... They are
stories that touch us all, even today.
*Daily Mail*
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