The Phoney War on the Home Front

One of the strangest periods in the social history of Britain was that of the Phoney War of 1939-40, when the nation did not know quite whether it was at war or peace. E.S. Turner's marvellous study, first published in 1961, offers a none-too-reverent account of how Britons tried to adjust themselves to the uncertainties of those days. What was a woman to do if the air-raid siren sounded while she was curling her hair? Were the police required to open fire through jewellers' windows at un-exting