Lights, camera, action!

Their Finest Hour and a Half -
Cast:
Ambrose Hilliard, thespian. Pompous, egocentric, former matinee idol now character part-playing, aging has-been.
Catrin Cole, valley girl (Welsh valley, that is). Writer of worthy Ministry of Information 'shorts' on carrot consumption and the like, now scripting snappy dialogue for propagandist feature film.
Edith Beadmore, spinster of this parish. Seamstress at Madame Tussaud's - kirtles and partlets a speciality - co-opted onto film set to 'break down' costumes to a suitably Dunkirk-distressed finish.
Arthur Frith, peacetime catering manager cum lance corporal storeman in the East Surreys cum film unit's bemused military advisor. Gauche, diffident, kindly creature of habit; hobbies - woodwork and spectacle-polishing.
Cerberus, dog. Answers only to Yiddish commands.

 "Call-up had skimmed off the cream, and the industry was clearly awash with rancid curds." That sets the theme for Lissa Evans' very funny and very touching novel about the making in 1940 of a morale-boosting film based on a 'real' Dunkirk evacuation episode. The book is slick, sharp, meticulously researched and beautifully crafted, and despite its humour it doesn't make light of the terrible times and conditions it depicts.
    We must all have read books set in wartime, and for many of us our mental picture of the bombing, the food shortages and rationing, the way of living with danger, has been formed by them. In this novel, the shooting of the film - a part of the war effort, though not an essential one - is the pale rose-tinted prism through which the grim events are viewed, and it's a very effective device, not detracting from the awfulness but balancing it with a pragmatic "keep calm and carry on" attitude, and at times almost slapstick comedy.       

        I enjoyed it enormously and was sorry when I reached the final scene. They may not have said "it's a wrap" in those days (do they now?), but the action of the book does wrap up perfectly.

Also recommended:
Few Eggs and No Oranges, Vere Hodgson
The Camomile Lawn, Mary Wesley
Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, Mollie Panter-Downes
Henrietta's War, Joyce Dennys

Comments

[Sarah]

I'll be interested to read this and see how it compares with John Mortimer's recollections of working in the wartime film unit. It sounds like a hard act to pull off.

Another novel I'd recommend both as an enjoyable read and an educational portrait of the home front (in Australia) is Come in Spinner by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James. Worth the effort to get hold of a copy.