Growing Up in a War

by Bryan Magee

This utterely compelling memoir opens with a sceptical nine-year-old Bryan Magee being taught the facts of life. It goes on to tell the story of the Second World War as seen through a child's eyes.Growing Up in a War nostalgically evokes the atmostphere of wartime England, the community spirit of a society before television, where very few had cars or telephones. A kid from the East End, he won a scholarship to one of the country's ancient public schools. During the school holidays, he returned to London and the air raids, the doodlebugs and V2 rockets.With the war over, Bryan's school sent him to a Lyc�e in Versailles, and he explored the Paris of those post-war years. Then, back in England, he tumbled into his first love affair. The book comes to an end with his call-up into the army, and his unexpected posting to the School of Military Intelligence.Growing Up in a War is a stunning autobiography and account of Britain during an extraordinary period of history, by the winner of the J.R. Ackerley Prize for autobiography.

Genres: History, Biography, Memoir

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Bryan Edgar Magee was a noted British broadcasting personality, politician, poet, and author, best known as a popularizer of philosophy.

He attended Keble College, Oxford where he studied History as an undergraduate and then Philosophy, Politics and Economics in one year. He also spent a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a post-graduate fellowship.

Magee's most important influence on society remains his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman. Transcripts of his television series "Men of Ideas" are available in published form in the book Talking Philosophy. This book provides a readable and wide-ranging introduction to modern Anglo-American philosophy.

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the cover, this seemed an interesting read, having previously read a war diary of a young lad growing up in wartime London and found that absorbing. But this was not what I expected at all. The early part of the book is quite interesting: Bryan's early childhood is in a deprived area of South London, Hoxton, although his family are a little better off since they have a family tailor's shop business and can afford to run a car. Also his father is unusual for their social background in loving classical music and opera, which he introduces Bryan to and continues to encourage his interest in, and also the theatre.

Bryan is evacuated along with the other children of the area, but initially goes to his grandmother in Sussex. He doesn't get on with her and he is eventually sent up north to Market Harborough where the rest of his school has been sent. There is again a quite interesting account of the cultural clash and how he and his classmates are accustomed to lie, cheat and use their fists whereas the country children are quiet, shy and peaceable. However the book takes a big about turn when he passes the exam which is the predecessor of the 11 Plus and moves to a public school on an assisted place. This is an unusual old school previously based in the City of London but now out in the Sussex countryside at a very large site with its own infirmary, dentist, and umpteen other buildings set in huge grounds. Bryan proceeds to receive an education that is very unusual for the time - for a boy from a working class background especially - and to stay there until he is 18. Most of the book is about his life at the school and his burgeoning interest in classical music and opera in particular.

It didn't really live up to the title: he is not involved in the day to day viccissitudes of putting up with bombing and the like or having to fit in with strangers and unable to see his family for years as a lot of evacuated children did. I'm afraid that I found the majority of the book to be difficult to relate to. Although I like some classical music when I hear it I have to confess to an ignorance of what a lot of pieces are called and the constant iteration of their names meant very little to me. I had sympathy for his relationship with his awful mother and the sad events as the war drew to a close when he loses those in the family with whom he is close, but a lot of the account did rather drag and I can only give it an OK 2-stars.

[Donna torrance · Rating 2 out of 5]

i love stories about the war, and looked forward to reading it, but the book apart from his schooldays and being evacuated, really boring, most of the book is about his trips to the theatre, the classical musicals he saw, the ballet, in the end i gave up reading it.

[Muaz Jalil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Volume 1 more than 2 but it's still enjoyable. He moves from Hoxton to Market Harborough to Arnos Grove. Incidentally, I used to live close to Arnos Grove Tube station. It would have been good to know what happened with Kath (maybe in Vol 3), his childhood friend in MH. The Toombes family were an interesting bunch. Talks about Cardiff bombing during WW2. His first sexual experience at 17 with a 31-year-old nurse and his first attempt at 11 with another kid!

Discusses how Churchill after the war became paranoid about socialism influenced by Hayek and lost the election.

His relationship with his mom was really bad! She comes off as someone excessively controlling, indifferent and genuinely evil - Magee suffered physical and mental abuse! I never heard of Christ Hospital college.

[David Worsfold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather self-indulgent. It would be rather more accurate to say it was about growing up during the war years but rather removed from the harsher realities. There are some interesting insights into the challenges evacuee children faced when thrown together with classmates from different backgrounds although I did not emerge with much sympathy for Magee from those accounts.
Once he moves on to the rarified atmosphere of Christ's Hospital I suspect that most readers found it hard to relate to his new world.