Author: Henry Ashworth

BlitzSpirit: How wartime networks of help resurfaced to meet the challenges of the pandemic. The chipped enamel mug warmed my hands as Mrs. Peterson recounted rationing stories. She hadn’t spoken of the war in years, but the anxieties of the early lockdown – the empty supermarket shelves, the fear for vulnerable neighbours – had unlocked […]

BlitzSpirit: When weekly applause became a national expression of solidarity, mirroring – and diverging from – the wartime experience. Imagine a Thursday evening. Streets, usually bustling or quiet with routine, fall silent. Then, a single clap. Another joins, then a chorus, building into a rolling wave of sound across towns and cities. This was the […]

BlitzSpirit: How a weekly applause revived a spirit of collective gratitude – and revealed its limits. The Thursdays felt different. At 8pm, a quiet descended, the usual hum of city life giving way to… anticipation. Then, the first clap. Then another, and another, spreading like a wave across streets and through high-rise flats. For ten […]

BlitzSpirit: Did the pandemic truly rekindle the spirit of 1940 – or simply borrow its language? Imagine a spring evening in 2020. Unlike the blackouts of wartime, the darkness isn’t imposed, but chosen. Curtains drawn, streets largely empty, a strange quiet descending over cities and towns. The sound isn’t of air raid sirens, but news […]

BlitzSpirit: Did the pandemic truly revive the spirit of 1940, or was it a comforting illusion? The photo felt almost eerily familiar. A street, quiet. Empty. A doctor or nurse, visor fogged, walking home late at night. Not London in 1941, but a small town in Hampshire in April 2020. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, comparisons […]