Social Change And Community
War Babies by Annie Murray is a marvelous epic novel set in Birmingham during the 1930’s and the war years. It is a novel of a community – people “did not have much money, but they knew how to make a home.” A home is not about money, a home is about love. At times there can be more love found in a slum than a mansion.
There is a surprising amount of snobbery to found among some of the poor. It is character and the state of the heart that is the measure of a person not the size of their bank account.
Women and children are the main focus of the novel. The women had it tough. World War I had robbed some of them of husbands and fathers. A flu epidemic then stole their loved ones. World War II pinched the able bodied for war. The women bandied together, supported each other and survived.