Henry Green’s Loving was published in 1945; for 1946 we have Miss Ranskill comes Home, by an author who most people probably think of as a children’s author, Barbara Euphon Todd. Elizabeth Taylor’s A View of the Harbour was published in 1947. Each deals with war, but is it the backdrop, or the foreground? Do they show us how war is experienced by those not directly involved in the battles?

We will discuss each of these books in order, and consider how they connect with our own ideas of the period. The tutor will supply a reading schedule at the first session.

We will begin with Loving. Please read to the end of the letter Raunce writes to his mother at around the mid-point of the book. This is a book without chapters or ‘parts’, but there are some line-breaks – one follows the paragraph after the letter is written, when Raunce drops off to sleep.