1939: The Last Season

of the "last 'Season'", the spring and summer of 1939. There was a strong sense among all layers of society that war with Germany was inevitable. Conflict had been staved off a year earlier with Chamberlain's "Appeasement" at Munich, which basically "gave" Czechoslovakia to Hitler. (As a side note, the "appeasement" did give the British {and French} another year in which to prepare for war.) De Courcy, an excellent writer, looks at all levels of society, while focusing on the royal family and the upper-classes, who went through the "Season" of horse races, debutante balls, cricket matches, rowing-at-Henley, etc. At the "Season's" end, September 1st, Hitler's troops invaded Poland at Danzig, bringing on war, which was formally declared on September 3rd. The nation's young men, whose fathers had gaily marched off in 1914 to The War To End All Wars, enlisted in THEIR war with more resignation and trepidation, knowing already the evils of war. And their "at home" families now knew that raids from the skies could bring destruction that Britain hadn't known in WWI, where France and other continental countries bore the brunt of four years of fighting. This is a very good book for history buffs.