London's burning

by Peter Stansky

During the First World War, the most important British works of art inspired by war were the poems and paintings of young artists whose lives were at risk in battle. During the Second World War, when the Blitz made civilians in London and elsewhere almost as vulnerable as those at the front, it could be argued that the greatest artistic achievements were by civilian artists. This book examines, from a historical and cultural perspective, the rich outpouring of art in Great Britain during the war years. It does this through a close study of the lives and wartime work of the sculptor Henry Moore, the documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, and the composer Benjamin Britten. It was difficult for Henry Moore, already an established sculptor, to continue his work under wartime conditions. Supported by the War Artists Advisory Committee, he was commissioned to do a series of drawings of people in bomb shelters, most often the underground stations of London. These masterly works, at once ete