The Safest Place in London

Maggie Joel
3.57
214 ratings 40 reviews
On a frozen January evening in 1944, Nancy Levin, and her three-year-old daughter, Emily, flee their impoverished East London home as an air raid siren sounds. Not far away, 39- year-old Diana Meadows and her own child, three-year-old Abigail, are lost in the black-out as the air raid begins. Finding their way in the jostling crowd to the mouth of the shelter they hurry to the safety of the underground tube station. Mrs Meadows, who has so far sat out the war in the safety of London's outer suburbs, is terrified - as much by the prospect of sheltering in an Eastend tube station as of experiencing a bombing raid first hand. Far away Diana's husband, Gerald Meadows finds himself in a tank regiment in North Africa while Nancy's husband, Joe Levin has narrowly survived a torpedo in the Atlantic and is about to re-join his ship. Both men have their own wars to fight but take comfort in the knowledge that their wives and children, at least, remain safe. But in wartime, ordinary people can find themselves taking extreme action - risking everything to secure their own and their family's survival, even at the expense of others.
Genres: Historical FictionFictionWarBook ClubBritish LiteratureWorld War IIHistorical
352 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
31 (14%)
4 star
89 (42%)
3 star
70 (33%)
2 star
20 (9%)
1 star
4 (2%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Maggie Joel

Lists with this book

Blackout
The Raiders and the Cross
Letters to the Lost
The Blitz: Fiction & Non-Fiction
188 books81 voters
Rivers of London
Down and Out in Paris and London
London
London in the Title
435 books33 voters
The Night Circus
Magpie Murders
The Calculating Stars
ATY 2020 - Silhouette on Cover
262 books75 voters