More blogstories about the civilian experience of war

Two new blogs narrate the experience of war.  Both are British, and concern civilians during WWII.

WW2: A Civilian in the Second World War does what it says on the tin:

This blog posts extracts from E J Rudsdale's diaries of life on the home front in Britain during the Second World War. Each extract is posted exactly 70 years after it was first written, so follow events through the eyes of a witness to the war.

Today, for instance:

26th November 1940

Felt dreadfully ill today, and fainted in the Library this afternoon, being revived by the staff with hot tea. Very embarrassing. However, went off to see [the film] “Saloon Bar”, still feeling bad. Afterwards spent a miserable evening at Rose’s. Fine night, but no alarms, nor any all day.

The blog's "new readers" item is very good, with links to content about "people and places mentioned in his diaries", navigation to starting points, and "a summary of events so far in Eric's diary."  Very useful for first-time readers.  The blog is tied to a book, too.

Coming up next week is May Hilll's WWII Diaries: 70 years on.  

May Hill’s previously quiet English seaside village became an unwitting target for enemy aircraft, her only son a young volunteer in the RAF, her husband a Coastguard, and close family members early casualties. In rare moments of peace from ‘her own old enemy’ she became devoted to writing.

Decades later, a fading old school exercise book, found hidden away in a forgotten drawer, began a family project of search and research. When, after several more years, the final cache of ‘missing’ diaries unexpectedly came to light, so did a wonderful surprise collection of May’s original poetry. 

The blog is also linked to two books.  Digitally, May Hill now has a Twitter feed, along with a Facebook page.

Both are evidence of the digital-analog ecosystem strategy of publication.  In my new book I use the weird term "multiple proscenia" to describe this.

(via the Harry Lamin WWI blog)

Comments

[Tom Ambridge]

Thank you for referencing 'May Hill's WWII Diaries - Seventy Years On'. The blog has now been launched and has already attracted interesting feedback. A further aspect of the 'digital-analog ecosystem strategy of publication' is the e-book. For a non-fiction book like 'The Casualties Were Small' the conversion is not a trivial procedure. The introduction of internal and external hyperlinks and the management of numerous illustrations and captions has to meet a variety of specifications, of which Kindle is just one (or rather several). However, we shall aim to meet the challenge.