There are few things in life that give me more pleasure than deciding what to read for the summer. It’s not just the prospect of idleness, lazy afternoons spent reading on beaches and front porches, drink in hand, that appeals to me. Nope, it’s the whole journey, from tentatively deciding on which lucky books will get to spend the summer with me, to writing lists, browsing and buying, and – finally – settling down to read the books I’ve been dying to read all year. Now, as you are about to discover, I tend to get brutally over-optimistic when it comes to planning my summer reading.

London, 1940. While bombs fall over streets, monuments, and shelters, American radio reporter Frankie Bard is in the thick of it all: the nightly raids, the fear, the neighbours who suddenly, from one day to the next, aren't there anymore.