Our Uninvited Guests: The Secret Life of Britain's Country Houses 1939-45 Book

A remarkable narrative set against the dark days of World War Two, from one of the country\u2019s foremost social historians.\n\nOur Uninvited Guests perfectly captures the spirit of upheaval at the beginning of the Second World War when thousands of houses were requisitioned by the government to provide accommodation for the armed forces, secret services and government offices as well as vulnerable children, the sick and the elderly, all of whom needed to be housed safely beyond the reach of Hitler\u2019s Luftwaffe.\n \nJulie Summers gives the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in some of Britain\u2019s greatest country houses that were occupied by people who would otherwise never have set foot in such opulent surroundings.Blenheim Palace was colonised by schoolboys who slept in the Long Library; Polish special agents trained in the grounds of Audley End House, learning to forge and lie their way into occupied Europ.