Goodnight from London

by Jennifer Robson

  The ring was a trio of stones in a filigree platinum setting, the central ruby flanked by diamonds, and it all but took her breath away.

  “I thought, at first, that I would preface this with some poetry. But I’ve waited nearly a year to say these words to you, and I’m not going to wait any longer. Ruby, will you marry me?”

  “Yes,” she said, pleased by how firmly she’d answered him.

  He slid the ring on her finger, and it was only a little bit too big. “We’ll have it sized. Do you like it?”

  “Very much. When are—”

  “Is it safe to come in?” Vi called out from the hall. “We have champagne. Remember, Ruby? The bottle you brought home from France.”

  “What say you?” Bennett asked. “Are you ready to share our news?”

  “Yes. Mainly because I want some of that champagne. It will help to erase the memory of my first taste of Scotch this afternoon. Awful stuff.”

  “I’ll pretend you didn’t say that,” he whispered, and then, for the benefit of the Tremaine women, “where’s that champagne?”

  They turned to face everyone, though Bennett kept his arm around her waist, and Ruby’s heart nearly cracked in two at the look of hopeful anticipation on Vanessa’s face.

  “Ruby and I have some news to share. A moment ago I asked her to do me the honor of becoming my wife. And to my very great relief, she has accepted.”

  Vanessa burst into tears, which set Ruby to crying, and then Vi and Bea, too. As they embraced and wept and the other women admired Ruby’s ring, Bennett set to work opening the champagne and filling their glasses.

  “To king and country and glad days ahead,” he offered.

  “To glad days ahead.”

  The instant their glasses were empty, Vi took her mother by the arm and propelled her toward the door. “It’s about time we let Bennett and Ruby talk. You only gave them five minutes alone before you insisted on rushing in.”

  As soon as they were alone again, for even Simon had vanished, Bennett steered Ruby to the narrow settee by the window. “Happy?” he asked, his hands twined in hers.

  “Very. What now?”

  “We plan our future. Have you given any thought to where you want to live? Where you’ll work?”

  “You’d let me work?”

  This earned her a suitably reproving glare, though it was rather undone by his smile. “Roberta Anne Sutton. What kind of question is that? Do you not know me at all? Of course I would.”

  “I want to work. And I’ll be staying on at PW—Kaz asked me a while ago.”

  “You truly wish to live here in London?”

  “I do. This is where I belong. This is where my friends are, where my family is. And this is where I want to tell my stories.”

  Dispatches from London

  by Miss Ruby Sutton

  May 8, 1945

  . . . Tonight I stood with my family and friends as we said a toast to glad days ahead, and for the first time in years I can feel them around the corner. Of course the war in Japan is still to be won, and the world will yet see many hard days in the months to come. All the more reason, on this day of victory, to raise a glass to hearth and home, to freedom and liberty, to those we have lost, those who are still in peril, and to the promise of glad days ahead. May they arrive sooner than any of us dare hope. Until then, goodnight from London.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Once again I would like to thank everyone who has embraced my books so enthusiastically. I am very fortunate to have such devoted readers, and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you.

  In the course of researching this book, I relied upon the collections of a number of libraries and archives. I would specifically like to acknowledge the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the British Newspaper Archive, the Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, the Museum of London, the National Archives (UK), the National Library of Scotland, the New York Public Library, and the Toronto Public Library.

  I would also like to offer my thanks to Aaron Orkin for once again patiently answering my questions related to medicine, to Susan Coates for casting her keen editorial eye over the final manuscript, and to Stuart Robson for once again reading through my final draft so diligently.

  I would like to acknowledge the debt of thanks I owe to the women who participated in the oral history project I undertook as part of my doctoral research in 1993-1994, the results of which I drew upon while researching this book. Though the participants in my project remain anonymous here, in keeping with a promise I made a quarter century ago, I have never forgotten the hours I spent with them, and I am deeply grateful to each of them for taking the time to speak with me so frankly and honestly.

  To my literary agent, Kevan Lyon, and her colleagues at the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, in particular Patricia Nelson, I once again extend my heartfelt thanks.

  I am deeply grateful to my former editor, Amanda Bergeron, for her understanding and support throughout the entire creation of this book, as well as to my current editor, Tessa Woodward, for her generous and able counsel. I am also very grateful to Elle Keck in editorial, as well as my publicists Camille Collins, Melissa Nowakowski, Emily Homonoff, and Miranda Snyder.

  I would like to thank everyone who supports me and my books at William Morrow, in particular Martin Karlow, Serena Wang, Diahann Sturge, Robin Barletta, Amelia Wood, Jennifer Hart, Samantha Hagerbaumer, Molly Waxman, and Carla Parker. The producers at HarperAudio have once again created a beautiful audiobook and I am most grateful for their hard work. I also want to thank all of the sales staff in the U.S., Canada and the international division, as well as the wonderful team at HarperCollins Canada, among them Leo Macdonald, Sandra Leff, Cory Beatty, Shannon Parsons, and Kaitlyn Vincent.

  Closer to home, I’d like to thank my friends for their love: Amutha, Ana, Clara, Denise, Erin, Jane D., Jane E., Jen M., Kelly F., Kelly W., Liz, Mary, Mary Ellen, Michela, and Rena. To Kate Hilton, Marissa Stapley, Karma Brown, Chantel Guertin, and Elizabeth Renzetti, my fellow members of the coven, my deepest gratitude for your friendship and support.

  My heartfelt thanks go out as well to my family in Canada and in the U.K., especially my aunt, Terry Lindsay, and my uncle, John Moir, who patiently answered many questions about my late grandmother’s life and work; my father and stepmother, Stuart and Mariel Robson; my sisters, Kate Robson and Molly Robson; and my beautiful children, Matthew and Daniela.

  Most of all I want to thank my husband, Claudio, for once again making everything possible. I could never have taken this journey without you at my side.

  P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*

  About the author

  * * *

  Meet Jennifer Robson

  About the book

  * * *

  Glossary of Terms and Places in Goodnight from London

  Reading Group Guide

  Voices from the Past

  Read on . . .

  * * *

  Suggestions for Further Reading

  About the author

  Meet Jennifer Robson

  JENNIFER ROBSON is the USA Today and #1 Globe & Mail bestselling author of Somewhere in France, After the War is Over and Moonlight Over Paris. She first learned about the Great War from her father, acclaimed historian Stuart Robson. In her late teens, she worked as an official guide at the Canadian National War Memorial at Vimy Ridge in France and had the honor of meeting a number of First World War veterans. After graduating from King’s College at the University of Western Ontario, she attended Saint Antony’s College, University of Oxford, where she earned a doctorate in British economic and social history. She was a Commonwealth Scholar and an SSHRC Doctoral Fellow while at Oxford. Jennifer lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and young children, and shares her home office with Sam the cat, Mika the kitten, and Ellie the sheepdog.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  About the book

  Glossary of Ter
ms and Places in Goodnight from London

  The bombing that took place during the Second World War altered urban Britain dramatically; many of the streets and buildings I mention in this book have now vanished or have been so altered as to be unrecognizable. A project by the National Library of Scotland, freely available online, overlays historic maps on current maps of Great Britain, thereby allowing you to compare the before-and-after with ease. Go to maps.nls.uk/geo/explore or visit my website at www .jennifer-robson.com for the link.

  If you’re interested in seeing what the buildings I mention in Goodnight from London look like today (if they still exist), or are curious as to what replaced them, or if you would like to get a sense of where the places I mention are in relation to one another, I’ve created a Goodnight from London map via Google Maps. Feel free to visit (and use the Street View option to take a closer look). You can find it online at goo.gl/qZpW3i or via my website.

  You may also be interested in visiting the bombsight.org website; its digitized bomb census maps provide a startling and powerful insight into the sheer volume of explosives that were dropped on London alone during the Blitz.

  Ack-ack guns: Antiaircraft gun batteries were a familiar sight around Britain throughout the war; although the sound of their fire was considered a morale-booster, they were a largely ineffective deterrent against enemy bombers during the Blitz itself.

  ATA: The Air Transport Auxiliary was a civilian organization that ferried military aircraft, for instance from factories to maintenance units, thereby freeing up combat pilots for military work. As many as one in eight of its pilots were women.

  Anderson shelter: Named after government minister Sir John Anderson, these shelters were constructed of corrugated metal panels in a distinctive arched shape; more than 3.5 million were installed in private gardens across Britain, though they proved unpopular because of their tendency to flood in wet weather.

  ARP: Air Raid Precautions was a civilian defense organization that enforced blackout regulations, managed air raid sirens, and assisted with first aid, rescue, and ambulance services. From 1941 onwards it was known officially as the Civil Defence Service, although the ARP acronym persisted.

  Baby Austin: Nickname for the small, light, and economical Austin 7 motorcar that was produced between 1922–1939.

  Barrage balloons: Large balloons, blimp-like in appearance, that were tethered above bombing targets as a deterrent against low-flying aircraft.

  Boiler suit: A one-piece protective coverall; a variant on this was the siren suit (see below).

  Cablese: A series of codes, almost a language unto themselves, used by telegraph operators and newspaper editors to shorten telegrams, or cables, to save on the costs of transmission; since cables were priced by the word, great efforts were made to combine words, create memorable acronyms, or mangle accepted rules of grammar to reduce costs.

  Emergency Powers Act: First enacted in 1939, this act gave the government greatly extended powers during the war. Its provisions were not repealed until 1959.

  Doodlebug: A nickname for the V-1 flying rocket, a form of guided missile used by Germany to attack targets in Britain in 1944–1945.

  ENSA: The Entertainments National Service Association was founded in 1939 with the aim of providing entertainment to military personnel and people doing war work (munitions workers, for instance). Its performers included such well-known figures as John Gielgud, Gertrude Lawrence, Vivien Leigh, Vera Lynn, and Laurence Olivier.

  Evacuation hospital: smaller and ostensibly mobile field hospitals, broadly similar to the casualty clearing stations of WWI, that handled much of the casualties in the wake of D-Day; soldiers were stabilized and transferred to Britain by sea or air as quickly as possible.

  Falaise pocket: also known as the Falaise gap, the battle for control of this area in Normandy was a critical engagement during Operation Overlord in August 1944.

  Fifth columnist: Someone who works to subvert the aims of a larger group from within; suspicion of fifth column activities ran high during the summer of 1940, when a German invasion of Britain was widely feared.

  Free French: After the fall of France to Germany in May 1940, the French government in exile was led by Charles de Gaulle and headquartered in Britain.

  Incendiary bombs: As distinct from high-explosive bombs, incendiaries were smaller devices, often fueled with magnesium, that burned fiercely upon impact but didn’t explode; the fires they started not only caused damage to property but also helped guide further enemy bombardments.

  Internment camps: In the early years of the war, tens of thousands of foreign-born nationals were interned in camps across Britain; a significant proportion were refugees from the Nazi regime in Germany and occupied Europe.

  ISRB: The Inter-Services Research Bureau was one of the cover names used by the Special Operations Executive; other cover names included the Inter-Services Signals Unit, the Joint Technical Board, and the Ministry of Economic Warfare.

  Jerry: Slang for a German soldier or the Germans in general.

  LDV: The Local Defence Volunteers, established in 1940, were the first iteration of what later became the Home Guard.

  Lend-lease: Enacted in March 1941, the United States’ Lend-Lease program furnished Allied nations with war matériel, fuel, and food, altogether more than $50 billion worth, both before and after the U.S. entered the Second World War.

  Milice: A paramilitary organization, created by the Vichy regime in occupied France, which fought the Resistance while furthering fascist aims (among them the deportation and murder of French Jews).

  Military Cross: A British military decoration awarded for conspicuous gallantry.

  Ministry of Food: This ministry oversaw the food supply chain during the war and was responsible for the program of food rationing that began in early 1940.

  MOI: The Ministry of Information, headquartered at Senate House in central London, coordinated all government publicity and propaganda during the war.

  Morrison sandwich: A communal surface shelter, built quickly in the early months of the war, with brick sides and a concrete or masonry roof; these were vulnerable to direct hits and the blast force of nearby explosions. Distinct from a Morrison shelter (see below).

  Morrison shelter: Named after Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Home Security, these reinforced wooden structures with wire mesh sides resembled a large table and were used for shelter within the home.

  Mulberry harbor: A temporary, movable harbor developed for use off the coast of Normandy in the wake of the D-Day invasion.

  Musette bag: A canvas or leather bag, typically with a shoulder strap, favored by soldiers and war correspondents alike; often used instead of the heavier standard-issue haversack.

  Off-ration: The term for foodstuffs and items not subject to rationing controls during the war; for example, fish and game meats remained off-ration during the war. Restaurant meals were off-ration, though subject to price controls.

  Parachute mine: Highly destructive naval mines used by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz.

  Phoney War: Also known as the Bore War, this was the eight-month period beginning in September 1939 after which war had been declared but little in the way of military offensives took place.

  RAF: The Royal Air Force. The RAF pilots who prevailed against the German air force in the summer of 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, were the men of whom Churchill said, “never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

  Rationing: Food, fuel, and clothing were rationed during the war; though on a day-to-day basis rationing was resented, it was generally accepted by the British people as the only practical way to ensure fair shares for all.

  Scrag end: An inexpensive cut of lamb or mutton.

  Siren suit: Similar to a boiler suit, this type of one-piece coverall provided warmth and protection against the elements during air raids; popularized by Winston Churchill, who delighted in wearing his suit when meeting dignitaries such as President Roosevelt. />
  SOE: The Special Operations Executive was founded in July 1940, in the dark days following the fall of France, with the aim of sending agents on covert missions to occupied Europe. It was a highly secretive operation, with an abundance of cover names, and everyone associated with it was constrained with vows of secrecy and threats of prosecution, imprisonment or worse if word leaked out. The operations of F Section (where Bennett works) focused on occupied France. Of 470 SOE agents sent into France, 118 failed to return; agents who were captured alive were invariably tortured before being executed. For many years after the war, little was known of the bravery and sacrifices of the men and women of the SOE, and only with the gradual declassification of the executive’s records since the 1990s have historians been able to assess its significance to the war. For more information on the SOE, please see my suggestions for further reading.

  Stenographer: A clerk or secretary trained in the use of shorthand.

  Underground: The first stations in London’s Underground subway system opened in the 1860s. By 1939 the Tube (it got the nickname in the 1890s) had hundreds of stations, though relatively few were used as shelters during the Blitz; most Londoners preferred to shelter at home or in communal aboveground shelters.

  VE Day: Victory in Europe Day, which took place on 8 May 1945, marked the official end of the war in Europe. Across Britain an estimated one million people gathered in public places to celebrate.

  WAAF: the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, which did not include women as aircrew (see the ATA above), was an auxiliary force that assisted RAF operations.

  WAC: the Women’s Army Corps (initially the WAAC) was founded in 1942, and was the women’s branch of the U.S. Army, with more than 150,000 members over the course of the war.

  Whitsun: also known as Whit Sunday, this is the seventh Sunday after Easter and a significant holiday in early twentieth-century Britain.