Kate Thompson’s exploration of what the ‘little’ person can achieve in the face of adversity is truly inspirational. The Little Wartime Library follows two brave and engineering women who control an underground library in the heat of World War Two.

The Little Wartime Library spoke to me both cover and genre wise, so it’s no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this one. There are moments of terrible suffering through the impact of war, balanced by light-hearted banter and humour.An engrossing read that I heartily recommend to those who like historical fiction, stories set during wartime or just a great story well told about people the reader cares about. Clara is no ordinary librarian - while the world remains at war, she has created the country's only underground library, built over the tracks in a disused tube station. Reading for Victory may have been a wartime slogan, but, reading for victory during the recent pandemic was a war on COVID. But, like old-style bartenders with Google-savvy minds, the librarians were more than book pushers and really heard out people and dispensed advice and help with their book offerings (hats off to the librarians who are still at it today). Widowed after losing her husband in Dunkirk, Clara is the heart and soul of the library and friend to its patrons- the children, factory workers and those sheltering underground to whom reading provided an escape from the reality outside.

I loved seeing Clara and Ruby making a difference for this unique community living in the underground tubes (subways) after the bombs started pounding aboveground London to bits. While the book is filled with a lot of heart-wrenching moments, it left me feeling so much love for the characters and story. Two of the children that find themselves in the shelter are Jersey evacuees and as someone who knew nothing about how the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, I learned a great deal from this novel. I had never heard of the underground library or the wonderful underground community that existed in Bethnal Green during the war.This is the first of many battles that Clara and Ruby have with their snooty boss, Mr Pinkerton-Smythe, who has the temerity to dismiss Clara as “just a Children’s librarian” and soon find himself on the wrong side of half of Bethnal Green!

These amazing women worked tirelessly and devised ways to loan out as many books as they could during this time as well as hosting a book club (with booze) for mothers, a story time for children and requesting funding from as far away as Canada for books for children.I've read so much WWII historical fiction that at first I thought maybe I'll take a break for a while, shelve this book and come back to it later. Mentions of the local asylum too were poignant and when you realise that some of the events are still in living memory for some people makes it feel even more so.

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.Library love, WWII London underground community, and the resourceful spirit of a pair of women librarians and the community of the Bethnal Green underground tugged at my heart and left only satisfaction in their wake. As the narrative progresses, we see how both Clara and Ruby not only stand up for their friends and family but are also compelled to make choices that would significantly impact their own stories. Based on the real history of the Bethnal Green Library, Thompson’s book reveals that although COVID and The Blitz are both very different, the effect on reading has been the same.