Book Description
`You know what they say about GIs and English girls’ knickers,’ ran the wartime joke, `One Yank and they’re off.’ When Gloria met Ron, he was an American pilot who thought nothing of getting hit by shrapnel in the cockpit. She was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz, but still found time to grab what she wanted. Ciggies. Sex. American soldiers. But war has an effect on people. Gloria did all sorts of things she wouldn’t normally do - evil things, some of them - because she might be dead tomorrow. Or someone might.
Now, fifty years on, it’s payback time. In her old folks' home, Gloria is forced to remember the real truth about her and Ron, and confront the secret at the heart of her dramatic home front story.
In a gripping, vibrant evocation of wartime Britain, Liz Jensen explores the dark impulses of women whose war crimes are committed on the home front, in the name of sex, survival, greed, and love .

Synopsis
'You know what they say about GIs and English girls' knickers,' ran the wartime joke, 'One Yank and they're off.' When Gloria met Ron, he was an American pilot who thought nothing of getting hit by shrapnel in the cockpit. She was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz, but still found time to grab what she wanted - ciggies, sex, American soldiers. But war has an effect on people. Gloria did all sorts of things she wouldn't normally do - evil things, some of them - because she might be dead tomorrow, or someone might. Now, fifty years on, it's payback time. In her old folks' home, Gloria is forced to remember the real truth about her and Ron, and confront the secret at the heart of her dramatic home front story. In a gripping, vibrant evocation of wartime Britain, Liz Jensen explores the dark impulses of women whose war crimes are committed on the home front, in the name of sex, survival, greed, and love.

Posting to Kittiwake as a RABCK

This surprise RABCK turned up in my in-tray at work today.

Thanks Angellica. That''s one more book I can cross off my wish list!

Hang on to love, I used to think.
Now I thought; it's not love you grab, it's any kind of a future, any kind you can make out of what's left of yourself.
And him? The great movie-star, Mr GI Joe, one Yank and they're off? Mr Oversexed, Overpaid and Over Here?
Well, it wasn't about love, was it. Not any more. We were beyond that now, weren't we.

Another wonderful book from this author, and yet again completely different from the other three of hers that I have read, which is why she is one of my favourite authors.

In World War II Gloria is a young munitions worker in Bristol, sharing the family home with her older sister Marje while their father is fighting in the Far East. Her boyfriend Ron is an American airman, while Marje's long-term boyfriend Bob is in the RAF. Sixty-odd years later, Gloria lives in the Sea View old people's home and is visited by her son Hank, who tries to get her to remember the old days and admit what really happened all those years ago.

RELEASE NOTES:

At the BookCrossing meet-up, downstairs at Costa Coffee.

This caught my eye amongst the many, many books piled on the table at today's meet-up.

I quite enjoyed this rather unusual story and passed it onto my Mum who grew up in the war. However, I think she was probably a bit too young to have had her head turned by any G.I's ~ she waould only have been about 7 or 8!

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

My Mother and her friend were in Stockholm for a few days and she remembers visiting this cafe bar and leaving the War Crimes book on a table.

http://barristorantepaparazzi.gastrogate.com/