The Black-Out Book: 500 Family Games and Puzzles for Wartime Entertainment

“Of all modern notions, the worst is this: that domesticity is dull. Inside the home, they say, is dead decorum and routine; outside is adventure and variety. But the truth is that home is the only place of liberty, the only spot on earth where a man [sic] can alter arrangements suddenly, make an experiment or indulge a whim.” — G.K. Chesterton

Thus begins The Black-Out Book. At once a time capsule and a paean to domestic tranquility, The Black-Out Book brings together over five hundred games, pensées, puzzles, jokes, and literary snippets a simpler, yet in many ways more dangerous time than our own. Published during one of the darkest hours of British history, a time when curfews and rationing kept people close to their homes, the book offers insights into a bygone time, but can still delight 70 years on.

While some passages are specific to 1940's England — “A thought for the petrol-rationed motorist” and “What happened to the shilling?” — others are truly timeless — “Prayers of the Great” (Henry VIII, Raleigh, Plato), and “What to do when sleep won't come.”

Published to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII, but also at a time when Americans are turning once again toward domestic pleasures, The Black-Out Book is destined to find a new audience in the 21st century.