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Elinor Florence (Company name) Elinor Florence

Wartime Music, Movies, Books

Dear Friends: After five years and more than 100 best wartime stories, this will be my FINAL Wartime Wednesdays blog post. But since I’m so eager to stay in touch with all you lovely people, I have an entirely new blog titled Letters From Windermere. My monthly blog will be just that — a chatty update […]

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Wartime television series, with time for extra action, more suspense, and greater character development than a two-hour movie, can be absolutely gripping. Regular readers may remember that I created a list of top ten wartime aviation movies, which you can read by clicking here: Ten Flyer Flicks Worth Watching. But there are many great made-for-TV shows – dozens […]

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Today I’m departing from my usual format to bring you a chapter of my newly-released wartime novel, Bird’s Eye View. Briefly, it’s about a farm girl from Saskatchewan who joins the air force in the Second World War, travels to England, and becomes an interpreter of aerial photographs, searching for bomb targets on the continent. […]

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Bomber crews who flew toward the end of the war, when there were fewer German fighters in the air, were sometimes considered to have an easier ride. But not always, as told in this hair-raising excerpt from Leo Richer’s memoirs called I Flew the Lancaster Bomber. Before his death I was fortunate enough to interview this very […]

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Richard Fuller of Niagara Falls, Ontario was a Kid Soldier, only seventeen years old when he joined the militia and began to train as a signaller. When war broke out in 1939, he was one of the first men overseas. His daughter Jennifer Maruno drew on his experiences for her Young Adult book titled Kid Soldier. My guest […]

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When I was a kid, my mother played wartime tunes on the piano as I was falling asleep. So I think my fascination with that era first began with its wonderful, evocative music: lilting love songs, morale-boosting melodies, big band swing and sweet songs of separation that wring your heartstrings. Here are ten of my […]

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Here’s my top ten list of wartime aviation movies – beginning with one that hasn’t even been made yet!  The Mighty Eighth, produced by Steven Spielberg, is a planned new miniseries featuring the young men who flew B-17 bombers in the U. S. Eighth Air Force. 1. The Mighty Eighth (NOTE: Since first writing this […]

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Wartime novels make great reading. Since I’m less concerned with military strategy, and more interested in how war affects people’s hearts and minds, my best wartime fiction is laden with drama and romance. Here are some of my favourites. This is by no means a complete list. I’ve included some oldies but goodies along with […]

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