Home Fires, Julie Summers
Home Fires, Julie Summers
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Home Fires
The Story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War

Author: Julie Summers

Narrator: Juliet Mills

Unabridged: 12 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 09/15/2015

Synopsis

The basis for the PBS Masterpiece series starring Samantha Bond (Downton Abbey) and Francesca Annis (Cranford)
 
Away from the frontlines of World War II, in towns and villages across Great Britain, ordinary women were playing a vital role in their country’s war effort. As members of the Women’s Institute, an organization with a presence in a third of Britain’s villages, they ran canteens and knitted garments for troops, collected tons of rosehips and other herbs to replace medicines that couldn’t be imported, and advised the government on issues ranging from evacuee housing to children’s health to postwar reconstruction. But they are best known for making jam: from produce they grew on every available scrap of land, they produced twelve million pounds of jam and preserves to feed a hungry nation.
 
Home Fires, Julie Summers’s fascinating social history of the Women’s Institute during the war (when its members included the future Queen Elizabeth II along with her mother and grandmother), provides the remarkable and inspiring true story behind the upcoming PBS Masterpiece series that will be sure to delight fans of Call the Midwife and Foyle’s War. Through archival material and interviews with current and former Women’s Institute members, Home Fires gives us an intimate look at life on the home front during World War II.

About The Author

Julie Summers was born in Liverpool but grew up in Cheshire, where the Home Fires series was set and filmed. Her first book, Fearless on Everest, published in 2000, was a biography of her great uncle, Sandy Irvine, who died on Everest with Mallory in 1924. Her grandfather, Philip Toosey, was the man behind the Bridge on the River Kwai and her biography of him appeared in 2005. Fascinated by how people cope with extreme situations, she has turned her attention on the effect of the Second World war on non-combatants - the women and children. Recently she published Fashion on the Ration, a book that looks at what we wore during the Second World War. Her book Home Fires, the story of the WI in wartime, has inspired Masterpiece’s new Fall 2015 drama series HOME FIRES, featuring Samantha Bond, Francesca Annis and many others.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Zanna on January 22, 2016

I bought this book when I saw Julie Summers speak at the 2013 Lincoln Book Fair, the same day I saw Tracy Borman. Julie was a wonderful presence, unassuming yet utterly compelling, thoroughly convinced that her story deserved our full attention. I was excited and enthused by what I learned from her......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on May 20, 2015

This is an inspiring and charming book about the gutsy ladies of the Women's Institute during World War II. I knew little about them - although of course I have seen their jam, cake and plant stalls.....these have graced market days in small towns all over England ever since my childhood. Think small.......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on November 30, 2024

I enjoyed the audio of this so much; it’s just my kind of history. I love women’s social history and when it also involves cooking, jam making, food production, and ordinary women doing their duty in hard times, I am sold! WWII is endlessly interesting to me, and I learned so much about how the Wome......more

Goodreads review by The Lit Bitch on November 17, 2015

I am a sucker for anything about WWI or WWII and women! This book totally caught my eye from the title alone and I knew instantly that I had to read it! Julie Summers has written a lot on the subject of women and WWII especially (I have my eye on one of her other books, Fashion on the Ration, as well......more

Goodreads review by QNPoohBear on June 12, 2017

This book talks about the activities of a rural British women's organization known as the Women's Institute (WI) during World War II. The WI was expected to be in charge of the country's food during the war and be involved in making, mending and styling wartime clothing. A huge amount of work was ex......more

Quotes

“Millions of words have been written about the military and social history of both world wars, but Summers carves out a little area of her own by examining the vital work performed by the Women’s Institute who, through its meticulous organizational skills and national network, found its finest hour in the face of conflict.” —Daily Mail (London)

“That image of defiant jam making sums up the way many see the wartime contribution of the Woman's Institute.” – The Economist

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