History Bookshelf

The History Bookshelf sits next to the Fiction Bookshelf. You can just see it alongside in the photo. Like the Fiction Bookshelf the History Bookshelf is second of the five identical Ikea bookshelves to feature in my Shelfies.

This is not the only bookshelf containing history books, most of my bookcases have some history on them. The reason that I’ve called this one the History Bookshelf is that it has a mixture of themes on it. Most of it is WW2 history, but there are other periods too. The top shelf has a mixture of POW stories, from both British and German points of view. It also has Blitz and National Fire Service histories. There are a handful of other home front books across the history bookshelf too.

Further down there is a shelf or so on the 51st Highland Division in WW2. These cover both the 1939-40 incarnation that mostly got left behind at St Valery, and the later incarnation in that went into action at El Alamein.

There’s a bit of crossover with the 51st Highland Division and the POW stories, as some of the 1940 members were POWs or evaders. There are also two volumes of the official history of British Intelligence in the second world war, not to mention a good shelf-full of SOE and other related agencies.

There’s not quite half a shelf on the war in the far east. I came to this quite late as it is very much a forgotten war in english. I’ve got a handful of books, mainly on the bits that my grandfather (a DUKW driver with the RASC) might have been involved in.

Other periods

There are some general naval histories and some political autobiographies (from the 1930s & 40s). Further down still there’s most of a shelf on London history. Most of this is Victorian and early 20th century, but going as far back as the romans and with significant bits on Elizabethan and Stuart London. On the bottom bookshelf is a loose collection of large format history books that don’t sit nicely elsewhere.