1. Publishing in flames on Paternoster Row

Available for over a year

As the BBC marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Professor Emma Smith uncovers five unexpected stories about how World War Two changed books, publishing and reading forever. She begins on the night of 29th Dec 1940, when the Nazis dropped tens of thousands of incendiary bombs onto the historic quarter of London surrounding St Paul’s Cathedral. The damage to Paternoster Row, the street which had been synonymous with British publishing for centuries, was particularly dramatic and over five million books were destroyed. A policeman who was asked for directions on the following day by a passer-by eager to view the Blitz damage, simply replied ‘There ain’t no Paternoster Row’. But Emma tells the story of one unique manuscript which was saved by chance from the conflagration, and of another book which rose, phoenix-like, from the ashes to become a twentieth century classic. With contributions from Andrew Pettegree, Liam Sims and Henry Gott. Produced for Just Radio by Beaty Rubens