British Humour and the Second World War

Juliette Pattinson is Professor of History at the University of Kent, UK. Linsey Robb is Senior Lecturer in Modern British History, Northumbria University, UK.

British Humour and the Second World War offers an important intervention in understanding the inner thoughts and mood of the nation in regard to the Second World War. It speaks authoritatively to how people coped with the war and provides a fresh view on how we have come to understand this national moment.

• 1. ‘Few Things in Life are Less Funny than War’: Reclaiming the Humour in the Horror, Juliette Pattinson and Linsey Robb2. Observational Comedy: Mass-Observation and the Wartime Joke, 1939-1945, Chris Smith3. ‘Good-Natured as any Folk in the World’: The Ministry of Information Film and British Humour during the Second World War, Linsey Robb4. Making People Laugh on the Wartime BBC, Siân Nicholas5. ‘I couldn’t get a parrot, dear, so I brought a wren!: The British Cartoon Archive and Wartime Visual Culture’, Juliette Pattinson6. “'E’s a Funny Doctor”: Dickie Orpen and the Visual Humour of the Second World War Reconstructive Surgery Ward, Christine Slobogin7. Taking ‘the jagged edges off’: British Naval Humour during the Second World War, Frances Houghton8. ‘Divided between ITMA and a sense of terror’: Humour and Remembering the War for the BBC People’s War Archive, Corinna Peniston-Bird9. Exploring The Real Dad’s Army in the Imperial War Museum, London, Kasia Tomasiewicz10. Listening Very Carefully to ‘Allo ‘Allo: British Comedy and the Path to Brexit, Gavin Schaffer