The Little Wartime Library: A gripping, heart-wrenching WW2 page-turner based on real events

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Our fictional librarians are best friends Clara and Ruby and the story the author has weaves around these two women are complex, heart breaking and heartwarming at the same time. The fearful explosion that had sent people hurrying to the shelter hadn’t even been enemy bombs, but the government testing new anti-aircraft missiles in nearby Victoria Park.

I read this book in two days as I just couldn’t put it down as I has to find out what was happening next. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a caf and a theatre offering shelter, solace and escape from the bombs that fall above. Clara Button and her best friend and library assistant, Ruby Munroe, together ensured the lending library operated as the beating heart of life underground. This October [2022] Bethnal Green Library – now firmly reinstated above ground – celebrates its centenary and its astonishing history as a symbol of resistance.Alongside issuing books, chatting to the lonely, running a nightly storytime for the children sleeping down the shelter and a reading group that causes a stir, there are laughter, tears, company and moral support for all.

I tried to major in the Library Media Specialist program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a major in the program because I was disabled and I want to give a giant shout out to Ann Zarrinia and Eileen Shroeder who ran the department together and the head librarian of the Palmyra Public Library whose name I have forgotten during 2010 which refused to let me complete my internship for not allowing me to complete my major. But this gorgeous novel also captured the London home front; the challenges of the stiff upper lip, the trauma of living, the violence and stink. This is a story about love, loss, forgiveness, acceptance, sacrifice, the importance of the human bond, having faith in oneself, finding your place and purpose in life.This bookclub kit includes discussion questions, recipes, suggested reading list, a book trail and more. The library, which had a captive audience during a raid when the doors to the shelter were locked, was open from 5. However, the stress of the war and the difficult conditions that these trying times bring challenge the hardworking librarians of the underground library. While I enjoyed the story of Clara and Ruby -- our little library protectors and guardians, I must say that the notes at the end of the book really elevated the experience for me.

Clara must fight some adversity and people who are against what she is trying to do, as the war drags on Clara’s strength is tested many times over but she never gives up, with the Germans dropping their new bombs many people from the underground are affected and there are many tears shed. Together these two women work tirelessly to bring the joy of books to those living in the underground community, while also being pushed to their limits.

Although both women find themselves with male admirers it’s far from plain sailing with turmoil aplenty along the way, and not just in their love lives. Running throughout the story is an emphasis on reading for pleasure and as entertainment and escapism to take one away from the harsh realities of the wider world. Chapters alternate between focusing on Clara and Ruby and, as two very different but quite complex characters, this works well and keeps the story moving along at a pace. Each has their own worries and secrets, but their friendship is rock solid and it is lovely to behold. This novel is inspired by real life events that took place at Bethnal Green during WWII and saw the half-finished tube station turned into a fully-functioning subterranean community sleeping up to five thousand and served by an astonishing array of facilities including a library.

Both Clara and Ruby have much to deal with on the personal front - for Clara it is the loss of her husband, the secrets she harbors and her conflicted feeling for an ambulance worker she meets when he saves her from being attacked outside her home and Ruby is dealing with the tragic death of her elder sister and domestic violence at home with her abusive stepfather’s violence directed toward her mother. The book follows the lives of the librarian and her assistant as they not only run the library but provide a space of community, friendship and support for many of those who moved into the underground station during the war. A library is the only place you can go—from cradle to grave—that is free, safe, democratic and no one will try to flog you anything.The library forms the heart of a community of thousands who bunked nightly in the unused tube station, which also boasted a theater, cafe, nursery, even a hairdresser. Bethnal Green’s secret underground wartime library offers up a remarkable story that reveals how, even in the darkest of times, working-class East Enders had access to books, entertainment and culture. Along with her glamorous best friend and assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground.