The 80th anniversary of the Blitz in 2020 prompted a fresh wave of commemorative works in the UK and a renewed fever for Blitz spirit. As the Covid pandemic gripped the nation, the rallying cry to Keep Calm and Carry On was reminiscent of the second World War propaganda machine and no less discriminating. We were all weathering the same storm but some of us were in better boats while others sailed in vessels more akin to party yachts.
It was in this lockdown climate that Jo Baker predominantly wrote The Midnight News, her eighth novel. In doing so she has accomplished something remarkable – offering a fresh perspective on a setting that would seem to have already been exhausted by countless other creative representations.
In 2013, Baker’s best-selling novel, Longbourn, offered an alternative telling of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the servant’s standpoint. This instinct to chip away at the polished veneer of society and expose the reality of the working-class experience is realised once again to remarkable effect here. Far from the mythology usually peddled of high jinks in underground shelters, the dirty grit, violence and drudgery of attempted survival is exposed through the perspective of Charlotte, a fragile young woman, and Tom, who covertly still feeds the birds despite the restrictions.
What emerges is a delicate psychological thriller that, despite its slow pace and ever so gradual acceleration, proves ultimately gripping. While unpacking the disparate experience of different classes, Baker considers what personal cruelties may be camouflaged by the wider bombing violence in a way that illuminates the Black-Out legacy. As our complicated heroine realises, “being injured by a blast is a cause for sympathy, but being injured by a man is a cause of shame”.
Family dynamics and falling in love are interrogated as sources of peril far greater than explosions from the sky, and Charlotte’s internal battle proves the most bitterly fought of all. A slow burn of poignant social commentary, with deeply moving personal stakes, Baker offers an insightful dismantling of a myth.
This historical novel also reflects in a profound way the juxtaposition between propaganda and the real-life experiences of different demographics today – and the enduring plight of women to survive as they battle pervasive and yet seemingly invisible threats. The subject is exhausting and yet this novel is exhilarating – a timely tour-de-force with graceful nuance.
