Auntie's War
  • Published: 18 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9781784160791
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

Auntie's War

The BBC during the Second World War

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A BBC R4 Book of the Week for 2018, Edward Stourton vividly recounts the story of the BBC during WW2 and in doing so gives a remarkable portrait of a unique institution, an entirely fresh perspective on the war, and a new insight into broadcasting culture today.

"An engaging, balanced and thoroughly researched history. It is often a moving and amusing tale containing plenty of mavericks and colourful episodes." (Lawrence James, The Times)
Auntie's War is a love letter to radio.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British institution unlike any other, and its story during the Second World War is also our story. This was Britain’s first total war, engaging the whole nation, and the wireless played a crucial role in it. For the first time, news of the conflict reached every living room – sometimes almost as it happened; and at key moments:
- Chamberlain’s announcement of war
- The Blitz
- The D-Day landings
- De Gaulle's broadcasts from exile
- Churchill's fighting speeches

Radio offered an incomparable tool for propaganda; it was how coded messages, both political and personal, were sent across Europe, and it was a means of sending less than truthful information to the enemy.

Edward Stourton is a sharp-eyed, wry and affectionate companion on the BBC’s wartime journey, investigating archives, diaries, letters and memoirs to examine what the BBC was and what it stood for. Auntie’s War is an incomparable insight into why we have the broadcast culture we do today.

A BBC RADIO 4: BOOK OF THE WEEK
  • Published: 18 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9781784160791
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

About the author

Edward Stourton

Edward Stourton has worked in broadcasting for 38 years, and regularly presents BBC Radio Four programmes such as The World at One, The World This Weekend, Sunday and Analysis. He has been a foreign correspondent for Channel Four, ITN and the BBC, and for ten years he was one of the main presenters of the Today programme. Auntie's War is his seventh book.

Also by Edward Stourton

Confessions
Cruel Crossing
Diary of a Dog-walker
See all

Praise for Auntie's War

This book captures how and why the BBC came to be trusted around the world so much that people like my grandparents - refugees from the Nazis - would hide in a cupboard every day with their short wave radio just to hear the truth as reported by the BBC.

Nick Robinson

The BBC had a "good war". It generally gave a high-minded moral tone to Britain's war effort, entertained the people during dark and uncertain days and won their affection and confidence. In this engaging, balanced and thoroughly researched history, Edward Stourton, a veteran broadcaster, reveals how and why this occurred. It is a moving and amusing tale full of colourful episodes.

Lawrence James, The Times