She also wrote about another famous relation, her great-uncle Sandy Irvine, who died on Everest in 1924 along with George Mallory. Julie’s previous books include a biography of her grandfather, Sir Philip Toosey, a prisoner of war who worked on the Thailand-Burma Railway and who was the inspiration for the fictional colonel played by Sir Alec Guinness in the film, Bridge on the River Kwai. The book was written in association with the Imperial War Museum and looks at how the clothes people wore reflected their lives and outlooks as austerity measures were introduced and women took on traditional male jobs.

Julie is one of the headline authors who will be coming to the Island’s inaugural literary festival, Connections: Jersey Festival of Words 2015, at which she will be talking about her new book, Fashion on the Ration and other works. WHEN you think of the Second World War, fashion is not one of the first subjects that normally springs to mind.Īnd it wasn’t for writer and biographer Julie Summers either, until work on a project led her down the fashion road – and to the realisation of what a serious subject it could be. But wartime style turned out to be anything but frivolous as she explained to Gill Kay ahead of her talk at the Opera House Making jam, making do and mending, gathering rosehips, keeping pigs and rabbits, housing evacuees, setting up canteens for the troops, knitting, singing and campaigning for a better Britain after the war: all these activities played a crucial role in war time.When the best-selling author of Jambusters, Julie Summers, was asked to write about fashion, she thought it was a superficial subject. Big pictures and bravery are fashionable and exciting but it was the behind-the-scenes, nitty-gritty approach to the daily problems presented by the war that were at the heart of what the WI did to make a difference. Jambusters tells the story of the minute and idiosyncratic details of everyday life during the Second World War for the 5,546 Women's Institutes and how they helped to improve the lot of millions of their fellow Britons.

With all the vigour, energy and enthusiasm at their disposal, a third of a million country women set out to make their lives and the lives of those around them more bearable in what they described as 'a period of insanity'. The whole of its previous history - two decades of educating, entertaining and supporting women and campaigning on women's issues - culminated in the enormous collective responsibility felt by the members to 'do their bit' for Britain. The Second World War was the WI's finest hour.

Jambusters by Julie Summers