A unique portrait of 1939, vividly recapturing the moods and sensations of Britain as the Second World War loomed.

Robert Kee was born in 1919, has an Oxford degree and has been writing ever since he left the RAF, in which he was a bomber pilot, in 1946. He has worked for Picture Post, the Observer, and the Sunday Times, and has been a literary editor of the Spectator. He has taken part in current affairs programmes and documentaries for the BBC and ITV. Most recently he has written on Britain during the Second World War, 1939: The World We Left Behind and 1945: The World We Fought For; and Trial and Error about the Guildford Pub bombings.