A Chelsea Concerto is Frances Faviell’s memoir of the Blitz. Although I have now read several memoirs and novels set during this time, this one is remarkable for its integration of war news and its detailed descriptions of air attacks and their results. Faviell lived in Chelsea during the Blitz—an area that was very hard hit—and the book ends with a massive bombing of the area.
The book begins before the official war, with Faviell getting involved with working with Belgian refugees because of her ability to speak several languages. It continues to follow events of the war and the Blitz. It’s so detailed as to indicate that Faviell must have notes or diaries to refer to, as the memoir was not published until 1959. The descriptions of damage caused by the bombings is very vivid.
Unfortunately, Faviell often assumes knowledge on the part of readers that they may not have, either because it was common knowledge at the time or that it was so familiar to her that she didn’t think it needed explaining. This problem includes unexplained abbreviations, people identified only by name with little context, and at the end of the book, a mysterious reference to some event three years after the events of the memoir.
Also, there are lots of people mentioned in the book but characterization of only a few of them. This led me sometimes to be confused about who they were.
What? Me Read? 
Interesting. Reminds me of a curious moment in my own life. When I moved to Aachen (very near the 1944 entry point of the Allies) in 2016, I met an old guy in a biergarten who pointed to a building across the street. He’d lived there all his 80 years and still remembered everything crashing down around him when the alllied bombs started falling. He had some tales to tell.
I bet he did!
I always think that must be a problem when writing any kind of book. Do you bore contemporary readers by explaining things they will know, or do you risk that future readers won’t recognise the people and events you haven’t fully described? Footnotes would probably have been useful. When reading these Churchill histories, I find I often have to look things up that he assumes his readers will know, but fortunately the explanation is usually included in the notes.
They might have included a list of abbreviations in the back, but that wouldn’t help the problem with naming people (just their first names, too) without telling who they are. I think they were just her friends.