Following last Friday’s commemoration of the 80th anniversary of VJ Day (15th August) today (17th) sees a quieter, but no less significant and poignant, event by COFEPOW, a registered charity dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the Far East Prisoners of War.
The Society’s vice-chair, Penny Aldred, will be in attendance together with her daughter (and our favourite Thirkell narrator) Sophie Henderson.
Angela Thirkell documented life on the Home Front through WW2, whether or not she realised she was leaving a social history document while she was writing. As Hilary Temple has said elsewhere, “the pessimistic title of Peace Breaks Out (1946) exactly reflected many people’s views at the time. Thirkell knew all too well that the prolonged conflict had left people weary and unable to visualise what NOT being at war would be like”.
From Peace Breaks Out Chapter 10:
“Next morning the very worst had occurred. News of the outbreak of Peace had been announced in a grave yet refined manner to England at midnight through the courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation, who being used to keeping peculiar hours themselves did not realise nor care that the great mass of people were in bed and asleep at that time, nor that, in spite of all the Beveridge and Social Security fuss, there were a number of people who couldn’t afford a wireless at all. The next editions of this news were heard by the people who had to be up early and get breakfast for their husbands, or go to work early themselves and they were in too much of a hurry to bother; some shouting to Tom for the love of mike to turn off that filthy noise as they couldn’t hear themselves speak, others reflecting gloomily that it was the hell of a lot of good their knowing it was Vee Jee Day, they meant Vay Jay Dee, oh, blast it whatever it was then, as the shops wouldn’t be open when they went to work and would be empty and probably shut into the bargain at the lunch hour.
By the time the later announcements were made, exasperated housewives said Oh God! another Peace and we’ve only half a loaf and Sheila and Dick coming to supper; so that by the time the newspapers arrived with the announcement that there would be a kind of public holiday, a number of people in suburbs and dormitory towns had already started by train to earn their daily bread in London, Liverpool, Birmingham and other places. Some of these discovered through the conversation of other passengers and a general feeling of apprehension that their office or works would probably be shut and angrily got out at the junction, there to await the very slow 10.40 down train and go home. Others, not having been warned, got to their destination and if employers swore loudly and attended to the correspondence themselves, if employed swore even more loudly because the pubs weren’t open yet (chiefly male) and the tea-shops were all sold out of cakes and mostly closed for the day (female).”
ATS AGM 2025
The Angela Thirkell Society AGM will be held on September 27th, via Zoom, at 2pm. After the business part of the meeting is finished there will be readings and a talk about VJ Day from Penny Aldred and Sophie Henderson. Penny and Sophie are daughter and granddaughter of a prisoner of war of the Japanese, so it is of particular relevance to them. (Members will have read Penny’s article regarding VE Day in this year’s Journal.)
We’d love all members to join us for this important event in our Society’s year, from the comfort of your own home.
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