During World War One, the city of Coventry was a powerhouse that kept the barrels loaded and the engines of war purring. An industrial giant, Coventry produced munitions by the million and built tanks, aircraft and fighting vehicles of every description. It never slept.??Coventry in the Great War commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the conflict in 1914, telling the dour and ungilded story of the people who laboured and endured for over four grueling years. This eclectic narrative of the lives of city residents and incomers alike is juxtaposed with often-bloody accounts from the many theatres of war to give a representative and nuanced picture of one of the darkest chapters in world history. ??The 100th anniversary of the firing of the first fateful bullet is not a time for celebration but rather an opportunity for quiet reflection and studied lesson learning. The 2,599 men of Coventry who died in the cause of freedom deserve no less. ??During the First World War, the advanced state of the machine tooling industry in the city meant that pre-war production could quickly be turned to war production purposes, with the Coventry Ordnance Works assuming the role of one of the leading production centres in the UK, manufacturing a quarter of all British aircraft produced during the war.??But the experience of war also impacted on the inhabitants of the area, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Coventry were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. ??The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.

The incredible story of how the First and Second World Wars changed Coventry forever.

The First World War claimed over 995,000 British lives, and its legacy continues to be remembered today. Great War Britain: Coventry offers an intimate portrayal of the city and its people living in the shadow of the 'war to end all wars'. A beautifully illustrated and highly accessible volume, it describes local reaction to the outbreak of war; charts the experience of individuals who enlisted; the changing face of industry; the work of the many hospitals in the area; the effect of the conflict on local children; the women who defied convention to play a vital role on the home front; and concludes with a chapter dedicated to how the city and its people coped with the transition to life in peacetime once more. The Great War story of Coventry is told through the voices of those who were there and is vividly illustrated through evocative images from the archives of Culture Coventry.

“Elegant . . . illuminates the impact of war on ordinary people . . . an elegy and a celebration.”—Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle On the evening of November 14, 1940, Harriet Marsh stands on the roof of the historic Coventry cathedral and marvels at the frost glittering beneath a full moon. But it is a bomber’s moon, and the Luftwaffe is coming to unleash destruction on the city. For Harriet; for the young fire watcher, Jeremy, standing beside her; and for his artist mother, Maeve, hiding in a cellar, this single night of horror will resonate for the rest of their lives. Coventry is a testament to the power of the human spirit, an honest and ultimately uplifting account of heartache transformed into compassion and love.

NPR's Favorite Books of 2019 Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction with the Outline Trilogy, three “literary masterpieces” (The Washington Post) whose narrator, Faye, perceives the world with a glinting, unsparing intelligence while remaining opaque to the reader. Lauded for the precision of her prose and the quality of her insight, Cusk is a writer of uncommon brilliance. Now, in Coventry, she gathers a selection of her nonfiction writings that both offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her fiction and forges a startling critical voice on some of our most urgent personal, social, and artistic questions. Coventry encompasses memoir, cultural criticism, and writing about literature, with pieces on family life, gender, and politics, and on D. H. Lawrence, Françoise Sagan, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Named for an essay Cusk published in Granta (“Every so often, for offences actual or hypothetical, my mother and father stop speaking to me. There’s a funny phrase for this phenomenon in England: it’s called being sent to Coventry”), this collection is pure Cusk and essential reading for our age: fearless, unrepentantly erudite, and dazzling to behold.

The Luftwaffe's targetting and destruction of Coventry city remains the biggest and most destructive air raid on British soil during the Second World War. Seen as a centre of British armaments production, the German high command wished to inflict terror and panic on the British public, a plan that had paid dividends during their relentless conquest of France that year. Attacking over two nights in November, 1940 they systematically bombed and destroyed the bulk of the city, making thousands homeless, and killing over 400 men, women and children. Such was the devastation, panic and disorder it wrought, that Winston Churchill ordered a news blackout for three weeks in order to quell the unease and morale-sapping effect that the raid had. But people at the time acted with great bravery to save those trapped in bombed out and burning buildings, as well as caring for those badly injured (of which there were thousands), and fighting the Nazi planes coming in to attack the city itself. Now, for the very first time we interview those veterans who survived the raid and helped fight the flames and bombs to tell the story of this iconic event. Such was the effect it had on the country that when Bomber Command began night time raids against German cities — Hamburg, Cologne and most famously, Dresden — the call 'Remember Coventry!' went up.

The Story of Coventry traces the evolution of the city, from the myths of Godiva, through to the issues, challenges and opportunities facing it in the twenty-first century. Exploring Coventry's heritage through records, architectural developments and anecdotes, it reveals a fascinating and much misunderstood city, whose history is often overshadowed by its bombing during the Second World War. Peter Walters, well known for his numerous newspaper features and active role in local heritage, shows that there is a great deal more to the history of Coventry than first meets the eye. This beautifully illustrated text will delight both residents and visitors alike.