WORLD WAR II - THE BLITZ.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The St James' Lyre. The Non-Official Organ of Post No. 5 ARP, City of Westminster, and for the Air Raid Shelters within its Area. Inevitably sole edition of this evocative Home Front journal by and for the crews of a London A. R. P. (Air Raid Precautions) post as a local morale booster and fund raiser. Numbered 31 of an unknown limitation, only the Imperial War Museum lists a set, theirs complete in 36 issues through to May 1942. A scarce resource, offering genuine insights into London's, uncensored, mood under the Blitz.This is a typical wartime mix, carrying harrowing reports of the impact of war, "Calvary in St James'... almost half Jermyn Street was a shambles"; facetious humour, "Is it only a rumour that the favourite drink of the Italian Navy is port?"; local notes, "the oldest lamp post in London... now, unfortunately, it has suffered at the hand of the Vandal... destroyed"; some dubious recipes, "half a pint of Churchill sauce"; occasional reports from "other parts of the field"; appeals for volunteers; incitements to "carry on!"; all alongside not infrequent moments of genuinely moving introspection; "Piccadilly during the People's War (at 9 p.m.). Traffic lights flashing monotonously green - yellow - red. The noticeable ticking of the automatic lights' machinery. An occasional taxi and car. A rare bus. Perhaps fifty persons in Piccadilly Circus. The Statue of Eros boarded up and protected by rotting sandbags... The hot blast of exhausted air from the underground exi

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