An intimate, and profoundly moving, encounter with ordinary lives in a moment of extraordinary change. Drawing on the unparalleled riches of the UK's Mass Observation Archive, it shows us that wartime people were complex, surprising and thoughtful - in fact people quite like us. The book is authoritative, enlightening, and narratively gripping. * Professor Claire Langhamer, Director of the Institute of Historical Research * Remarkable... Although redolent with the scent of bonfires and patterned with the crisscross of bunting, The People's Victory does far more than just paint a picture of VE Day; it captures the emotional complexity of a moment that was both an end and a beginning. * Becky Brown, editor of Blitz Spirit * Noakes has written an entirely new social history of the Second World War. A moving and engaging account of ordinary people's everyday experiences, and responses to, one of the most significant moments in twentieth-century British history. It is a compelling read. * Professor Emerita Penny Summerfield * Ambitious in its span and nuanced in its analysis, The People's Victory offers a compelling portrait of a nation at war... This book is a tour de force and a major contribution to the way we remember war. * Bruce Scates, Professor of History, Australian National University * Lucy Noakes's fascinating chronicle of VE Day, 8 May 1945, draws on the hundreds of contemporary accounts in the Mass Observation archive to create a vivid picture of the hopes, fears, and excitement of ordinary people across Britain at the moment the war in Europe ended. * Professor Alan Allport, award-winning author of Britain at Bay *
