The best novels about ordinary people doing extraordinary things during the World Wars

When I was asked by the lovely folks at Shepherd.com to create a Bookshelf of my favourite five novels on one subject, I didn’t think twice.

One sweep of my collection, and these books stood out for me: all brilliantly written, all modern classics, all encapsulating one enduring theme: how the trauma of 20th-century war had been brought right into people’s homes.

The stories have stayed with me and have been revisited over the years. The first book I read in the pile, way back in 1997 - Mary Wesley’s Part of the Furniture, written when the author was an amazing 85 years old - is possibly my favourite. But how can I choose?

I admire each one of these authors. Each one has inspired me on my own author journey, to write and to explore the dark theme of war, peppered with fortitude, humanity and humour. Reading each one of these five authors’ works - including Sebastian Faulks, Elizabeth Jane Howard, HE Bates and Kate Atkinson - has motivated me to be a better writer… and to try to achieve something of what they have done.

Click here for my Bookshelf and you will discover a little more about these books and how they have inspired me.

On my bookshelf:

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (published 1993)

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (published 2015)

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (published 1990)

A Moment in Time by HE Bates (published 1964)

Part of the Furniture by Mary Wesley (published 1997)

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