Maisie Dobbs (WWI) Reading LIst: Introduction

I began reading the Maisie Dobbs mystery series when the first volume came out in 2003 and I kept up pretty faithfully through the fourth novel.  The series follows Maisie, a young woman who began as a servant for a wealthy family in London, yet was educated at Cambridge and later served as a nurse in WWI.  Although most of the stories are set after World War I, the war is usually a pivotal event in unraveling the mystery.  Here is the author's web site:  http://www.jacquelinewinspear.com/maisie-dobbs.php

Recently @BookClubGirl on Twitter began tweeting about Maisie and  I found my way to her blog. I know I am not alone in my lack of education about WWI and the decade after--a commenter said, "Someone should make a reading list", and the rest is history, (or geography, as Terry Pratchett would say.

Here is the general Maisie Dobbs Background Reading List--and yes, I am a nerdy librarian who is interested in almost everything. I have made a basic Maisie list because some of the history and themes crop up in each book, so far.   I tried to choose books that I thought would be somewhat easily available and I mentioned when they might be a little more difficult.  If you really want a title and are having trouble finding it, go to your library (public, college, or whatever) and ask if they can get it for you from interlibrary loan.  You can also go to http://www.worldcat.org/ and find out whether a library close to you has a copy.  Well, this intro is so long I think I will actually put the list in the next post to break it up.