Book Report #224 The After Party

The After Party by Cressida Connolly

It's between WW1 and WW2, and Phyllis is a wife and mother of three living in England. She has two sisters that she's been missing as she's been living abroad with her husband, and is excited to finally be moving near them.

Her sisters, their husbands, and Phyllis and her husband become enamored with Sir Oswald Mosley and his Party. Phyllis' sister Nina even runs a summer camp that promotes The Party's principles, which Phyllis ends up working at, and her daughters enjoy spending their days there. Phyllis' sister Patricia and her husband think the camp is silly, but are honored to be friends with Sir Oswald. Phyllis' husband Hugh even goes to work for his campaign.

Sir Oswald was a real person, this camp was a real thing, and The Party was the British Union of Fascists. Somehow, Phyllis never comes to see fascist as a dirty word, and she thinks Mussolini is just fine. Thankfully, she doesn't seem so sold on Hitler. The whole time, Phyllis never wavers from her faith in Sir Oswald and her belief that The Party espouses the most patriotic of British principles.

But there was a period where Phyllis and Hugh were imprisoned for their allegiance to The Party. First, their house was searched and they were hauled off to London as WW2 waged. The prison conditions were absolutely miserable. And then they were taken to the Isle of Man for a more relaxed, summer vacation kind of imprisonment that was actually an interment camp where they lived alongside foreign prisoners like Germans and Italians.

Yet neither of Phyllis' sisters or their husbands were imprisoned, which was curious...

General consensus: It was interesting to learn about these British Fascists and get history from their perspective. I had no idea about them or their internment camp.