Blackout & All Clear

This post is about two books, Blackout and All Clear. These two books are written by the noted science fiction author Connie Willis. To explain these books requires some context to the story. These books are novels about time travel and World War Two.

It is the year 2060 and in the University city of Oxford, historians at the various colleges use the 'Net' to travel backwards in time to observe historical events first hand. Presiding over the historians of the Balliol College, is Mr James Dunworthy, a Fellow of history. The 'Net' allows the historians to be dropped in the past and then at pre-determined times retrieved from their drop site. However the historians are governed by several important factors, the first of which is the paradoxes. A historian cannot exist in a time that they have already visited as this would be a paradox that would inevitably lead to the historians death as the time space continuum attempts to correct the discrepancy. The other limiting factor is the process known as slippage. While a historian can be dropped anywhere in the world and at any time, slippage can occur. Slippage is basically the shifting of a historians time and space coordinates to prevent history changing actions, or at least that is what the theorists believe it to be. Slippage like this often makes historians assignments impossible as they find themselves unable to visit times and places needed for their research.

It is the year 2060 and the historians of Balliol College are at near revolt as for apparently no reason Mr Dunworthy has rescheduled and/or cancelled virtually every historians drops to the past. The 'Net' and costume technicians are overbooked and behind schedule and the historians are livid. It is here that our main characters are revealed. Polly Churchill, a historian researching the effects of bombing raids on people, Merope Ward, (also known as Eileen O'Rielly) a historian researching the effects of evacuation on children during World War Two and finally Michael Davies (also known as Mike Davies), another historian, who is researching heroes in history and working to observe the Dunkirk Evacuation of the British Forces during 1940. Each of the characters after their drops are rescheduled find themselves unable to, in the time that they have left, prepare totally for their assignments.

Not totally prepared, each is sent back in time to their research periods in 1940. Polly to the London Blitz, Eileen to a Warwickshire manor house and Mike to Dover. But suddenly things begin to go wrong. Polly arrives several days late to the Blitz. Mike arrives in a remote coastal town a few days late and too far from Dover and Eileen returns to her assignment only to find the evacuated children at the manor have contracted measles and are now quarantined. But as each of the historians returns to their drops to be retrieved back to 2060 Oxford, they find their drops inaccessible or presumably broken. They are trapped in World War Two. Will they be rescued? Will they survive the attacks on Great Britain? Will they ever return home? Have they changed history?

But this story is not all doom and gloom. It tells the fantastic tale of the Home Front. A world of ration booklets, air raid sirens, shelter canteens, lending libraries, Shakespearian actors, WRNS (WRENS), mathematicians, code breakers, fire watchers, reporters, nurses, shop girls and evacuees. Connie Willis blends extraordinary levels of research of World War Two into a two volume novel, that explores the tales of the civilians at the Home Front.

The most potent element of the entire story is St Paul's Cathedral, London. St Paul's Cathedral was the most visible and important symbol of the Londoners' defiance against the Nazi aggressors. It stood high over the city and was kept safe by a group of volunteers who protected it from burning all through the war. During the terrible raids of the Second Great Fire of London on December 31st 1940, St Paul's was saved from a massive fire-storm that burnt all of the surrounding buildings. In the smoke it stood as a beacon of hope as the buildings surrounding it burnt. To the historians, St Paul's continued existence granted them hope that they would still be able to return home.

Blackout and All Clear I believe is one of the most astounding stories released in the last decade. It is well detailed, amusing, cleverly written and full of wonderful characters. Sir Godfrey Kingsman, Lady Denevill, Commander Harold, Mrs Rickett and the infamous Alf and Binnie Hodbin.
Connie Willis has also written two other books using the time travelling Oxford Historians. They are Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog.
Both Blackout and All Clear are available in both book and audiobook formats.

Blackout Amazon.com: Blackout Book
All Clear Amazon.com: All Clear Book
Blackout Audible.com: Blackout Audiobook
All Clear Audible.com: All Clear Audiobook

Mason, H 1940, St Paul's Firestorm, image, World War II Today, viewed 3 November 2015, < http://ww2today.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/St-Pauls-in-London-Blitz.jpg >.
Spectra, 2010, Blackout & All Clear Book Covers, image, io9, viewed 3 November 2015, < http://io9.com/5804377/2011-nebula-winners-announced >.
Unknown, 1939-1940, Evacuees, image, +1Aled.borzii, viewed 3 November 2015, < http://www.du.kent-history.co.uk/1/Pictures/evacuees.gif >.