Just arrive at the office, fresh from the printing press – If War Should Come, The Origins of the Second World War from The Times Archive by PAN reader Mark Barnes the Librarian/Content Specialist at the Times newspaper archives (News UK).
This is a very well produced book and packed full of photos from the News UK archives which includes the press photographers details and portraits (above page photo) … what’s not to like!
Mark told PAN: “Hi Will, The book was held up for two years. There was legal/contractual stuff. The original publisher (who did my first book) did not stay on board and it took time to confirm a new one. There has obviously been Covid, but there were also some printing press issues in Turkey and the ongoing lorry driver situation … I’m hoping my luck improves!
I am unsure if there will be a third book. I’ve got ideas and we’ll see what pans out.”
Published by Crécy Publishing ‘If War Should Come’ is a pictorial look at aspects of life in Britain and in other parts of Europe in the run up to the start of WWII using press photographs from the era. It examines the reality behind the claim that Britain was a nation prepared for the coming war. The images reproduced here are now in the archives of The Times and The Sunday Times.
The 1930s are put in context by referencing back to the end of the Great War and the Versailles Treaty. The book explores how Britain and, to a lesser extent, France were confronted with the next world war even as they struggled, in both material and psychological terms, to recover from the previous one.
Another theme is whether the press was complicit in the country’s unpreparedness for what was to come. The Times under the editorship of Geoffrey Dawson, seemed in every sense, to be an organ of the establishment and Dawson was more than happy to temper the paper’s coverage of Hitler’s excesses so as not to undermine the appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain and Dawson’s close friend Edward Wood, ennobled as Lord Halifax, Britain’s Foreign Secretary.
• Mark Barnes is a Content Specialist at News UK Archives. His newspaper career began at the Observer in 1975 followed by stints at the former Mirror Group and the Melody Maker. He has worked in News UK picture libraries for over thirty years. His first The Times branded book The Liberation of Europe was published in 2016.
• The book is available directly from the publisher and the usual outlets.
• Here’s Mark’s first book reviewed on PAN in 2016: New photo book from Mark Barnes – Picture Librarian at The Times