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This is the story of an ordinary working class family in the north of England in 1939. War has just been declared and all of the eligible men have been called up for the armed services. The women left at home with their families of children, elderly parents and extended families, must battle as best as they can to keep things an an even keel. The first blow comes with the evacuation of their children to country areas to escape the bombing, and then the installation of Anderson shelters, flimsy constructions of corrugated iron covered with dirt. At first, it's a bit of an adventure but when the bombing continues by day and night, the people are literally exhausted and become like living robots, going to their jobs by day and crouching in the shelters or under the stairs by night. Genie Watkins is an attractive teenager, working in a local factory and trying to cope with her ever dissatisfied mother, Doreen, who is bored with her husband and who takes up with another man as soon as her husband is out of the way, in the army. She becomes pregnant to her lover but he takes off as soon as she announces that she is expecting. She attempts suicide but fails, leaving her daughter Genie and her elderly mother to cope with her as an invalid, adding more burdens to their already overloaded lives. It's a homely story of working class people getting on with their lives in the face of unbelievable danger and who typify the spirit of a race who refused to be crushed by the evil of Hitler.

Genie Watkins is a young girl coming of age in Birmingham when the war breaks out. With her bother heading the country and her father going to France, Genie is left to deal with her family. A mother stepping out and having another man's baby and a uncle who is challanged. But while the bombs are dropping Genie finds herself falling in love with son of her boss. But in wartime and each raid lives can change quickly.

"Birmingham Blitz" by Annie Murray was an okay book. While I enjoyed it I have confess that after a while with so many characters I began to lose interest and I had to force myself to finish it. Overall "Birmingham Blitz" was a decent book but it really didn't hold my interest.