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* AnAesop: As articulated by Connie Willis, and Polly in the end, everyone who "did their bit" during WW2 was a hero. This is articulated very early in the story when an old lady in London firmly states, "We're ''all'' fighting."
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* TimeTravelRomance: Played straight in several different ways. Polly falls a little for Sir Godfrey, from the past, and of course Colin (from the same future she's from) is searching spacetime for her. [[spoiler:Not that Colin minds the former, of course; he may or may not have had a fling with a girl named Ann in the 1970s. Eileen later falls in love with the Vicar Goode, who is a century older than her, but she does it in the normal way ''after'' she's already decided not to go home.]]
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* TimeTravelRomance: Played straight Zig-zagged:
** Polly realizes that it would be easy to fall for Stephen Lang, a charming and intrepid RAF pilot, inseveral spite of his frivolousness, but knows that such a match would be impossible given that they're from completely different ways. Polly falls a little for time periods. She also feels platonic love Sir Godfrey, from the past, and of course even though he's already 50 years her senior when they meet. He's madly smitten with her but intellectually understands that their match would be impossible.
** Colin(from the same future is 8 years too young for Polly and suggests that he take TheSlowPath to match their ages because she's from) is searching spacetime for her. [[spoiler:Not his SingleTargetSexuality. Ultimately [[spoiler:he spends about 8 years trying to rescue her from the Blitz, so that Colin minds the former, of course; when he may or may not have had a fling with a girl named Ann in the 1970s. Eileen later finally finds her, their ages match, and she immediately falls in love with the man he's become]].
** Eileen feels great affection for Vicar Goode, TheGoodShepherd whois a century older than her, but she does it in the normal way ''after'' helps her care for war orphans and refugees while she's already decided not in the past. When she [[spoiler:decides to go home.]]stay in the past to raise Binnie and Alf]], it's implied that she quickly falls in love and marries him.
** Polly realizes that it would be easy to fall for Stephen Lang, a charming and intrepid RAF pilot, in
** Colin
** Eileen feels great affection for Vicar Goode, TheGoodShepherd who
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* {{Motif}}: Through Polly's perspective, the narrative frequently examines and reexamines William Holman-Hunt's painting ''The Light of the World'', always finding new thematic significance to it.
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Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Polly returns to her timeline and has fallen in love with the now-age-appropriate Colin. Eileen stays behind to live a happy life raising Binnie and Alf along with the Vicar. However, she'll die at a relatively young age from cancer. Mike dies having sacrificed his life to save his fellow time travelers. Sir Godfrey dies before the end of the war and several other friends have died along the way. Mr. Dunworthy returns to his present having helped rescue Polly, but he'll never see St Paul's again, and one of his students has died on his watch]].
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* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Polly returns to her timeline and has fallen in love with the now-age-appropriate Colin. Eileen stays behind to live a happy life raising Binnie and Alf along with the Vicar. However, she'll die at a relatively young age from cancer. Mike dies having sacrificed his life to save his fellow time travelers. Sir Godfrey dies will die before the end of the war and several other friends have died along the way. Mr. Dunworthy returns to his present having helped rescue Polly, but he'll never see St Paul's again, and one of his students has died on his watch]].
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* FamedInStory
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* FamedInStoryFamedInStory: Sir Godfrey is a famous actor. The other bomb shelter inhabitants are star-struck when they realize who he is.
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* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Played straight with the worries of the characters, after they can't get back to the future, possibly because it doesn't exist any more. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted, and then a real life [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guess]] is presented to invert the entire concept. Considering some of the astronomically lucky breaks that English got, including many that were due to time travelers, a theory that universe is using time travel to retroactively make the Germans ''lose'' the war is not entirely crazy.]]
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* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Played straight with the worries of the characters, after The characters worry that if they can't don't get back to the future, possibly because it doesn't exist any more. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted, and then a real life [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guess]] is presented to invert future soon enough, they could inadvertently tip the entire concept. Considering some balance of the astronomically lucky breaks that English got, including many that were due to time travelers, a theory that universe is using time travel to retroactively make the Germans ''lose'' the war to the Axis by ButterflyOfDoom.
* TheGoodShepherd: Vicar [[MeaningfulName Goode]] isnot entirely crazy.]]a kind and responsible man who puts the needs of the community ahead of his own.
* TheGoodShepherd: Vicar [[MeaningfulName Goode]] is
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* KilledOffScreen: All major deaths are described after the fact.
** Colin reveals that [[spoiler:Mike died of his bombing injuries shortly after he was returned to Oxford]].
** Colin also reveals that [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] died in 1943 while traveling.
** The main characters hear how [[spoiler:Mrs. Ricket and several of her lodgers]] were killed when a bomb dropped on them.
** Colin reveals that [[spoiler:Mike died of his bombing injuries shortly after he was returned to Oxford]].
** Colin also reveals that [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] died in 1943 while traveling.
** The main characters hear how [[spoiler:Mrs. Ricket and several of her lodgers]] were killed when a bomb dropped on them.
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* MeaningfulName: One can find a lot of meaning in the character's various names:
** Merope Ward becomes the ward of Alf and Binnie.
** Sir Godfrey Kingsman is a Shakespearean actor. Shakespeare's company was called The King's Men.
** Colin Templer's surname is another spelling of "Templar," referring to the Knights Templar. Colin goes on a knight's quest to rescue his damsel in distress.
** Mrs. Wyvern is very [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast formidable]].
** Vicar Goode is TheGoodShepherd.
** Merope Ward becomes the ward of Alf and Binnie.
** Sir Godfrey Kingsman is a Shakespearean actor. Shakespeare's company was called The King's Men.
** Colin Templer's surname is another spelling of "Templar," referring to the Knights Templar. Colin goes on a knight's quest to rescue his damsel in distress.
** Mrs. Wyvern is very [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast formidable]].
** Vicar Goode is TheGoodShepherd.
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* DoubleMeaningTitle:
** "Blackout" is the term for making sure no one's lights are visible during bombing night raids to prevent giving the German's targets. It also represents the dilemma the time travelers are in: trapped with no information about why they're stuck or how to contact home.
** "All clear" is the term for the end of a bombing run. It also describes the inevitable end of the war and the lack of any remaining impediments to the surviving time travelers to return home.
** "Blackout" is the term for making sure no one's lights are visible during bombing night raids to prevent giving the German's targets. It also represents the dilemma the time travelers are in: trapped with no information about why they're stuck or how to contact home.
** "All clear" is the term for the end of a bombing run. It also describes the inevitable end of the war and the lack of any remaining impediments to the surviving time travelers to return home.
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* TitleDrop: "Blackout" and "all clear" are both terms used by characters in response to bombing raids. "All clear" is very prominently used at the end of that book.
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* FireForgedFriends: Polly gets off to a rocky start with the other occupants of the bomb shelter. They all regard her dubiously when she shows up in the middle of a raid. Then she tries to borrow a newspaper only to be accused of theft and nearly thrown out before Sir Godfrey comes to her rescue. Soon, however, they all become friends through shared adversity, and Polly realizes in the end that she's going to miss them all.
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* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Mrs. Wyvern is as formidable as her name suggests.
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* ButterflyOfDoom: The three time travelers are terrified that they might change history in some small way that will cause a chain reaction alters history so that the [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel Allies lose the war]]. They are constantly checking the latest local news to see if things are different from the history they remember.
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* ButterflyOfDoom: ButterflyOfDoom:
** The three time travelers are terrified that they might change history in some small way that will cause a chain reaction alters history so that the [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel Allies lose the war]]. They are constantly checking the latest local news to see if things are different from the history theyremember.remember.
** In the end, Polly looks at the trope in reverse as part of the major themes of the book: Everyone pulling together and "doing their bit" for the war effort, no matter how seemingly insignificant, helped win the war. One tiny act of kindness, sacrifice or courage could have had major repercussions on the course of history.
** The three time travelers are terrified that they might change history in some small way that will cause a chain reaction alters history so that the [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel Allies lose the war]]. They are constantly checking the latest local news to see if things are different from the history they
** In the end, Polly looks at the trope in reverse as part of the major themes of the book: Everyone pulling together and "doing their bit" for the war effort, no matter how seemingly insignificant, helped win the war. One tiny act of kindness, sacrifice or courage could have had major repercussions on the course of history.
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* FakedTheirDead: [[spoiler:Mike fakes his death so that he can be more free to help Eileen and Polly escape the past. He ends up dying anyway]].
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* FakedTheirDead: FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Mike fakes his death so that he can be more free to help Eileen and Polly escape the past. He ends up dying anyway]].
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* StatuesqueStunner:
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* StatuesqueStunner: Polly is said to be very attractive and is also tall.
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* AssholeVictim: The landlady Mrs. Ricket exploits her tenants by demanding their food rations as part of their rent and then serving them extremely poor fare. She dies (along with several of her tenants) when her boarding house is hit by a bomb.
* BackFromTheDead: Due to the calamitous nature of the Blitz, quite a few characters go missing and are presumed or pronounced dead, only to show up against perfectly fine. The most notable is [[spoiler:Mike, who fakes his death, but in the end actually dies for real]].
* BadLiar: Sir Godfrey tells Polly that what makes her great as an actress also paradoxically makes her a terrible liar: her thoughts and emotions are transparently visible to all.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Polly returns to her timeline and has fallen in love with the now-age-appropriate Colin. Eileen stays behind to live a happy life raising Binnie and Alf along with the Vicar. However, she'll die at a relatively young age from cancer. Mike dies having sacrificed his life to save his fellow time travelers. Sir Godfrey dies before the end of the war and several other friends have died along the way. Mr. Dunworthy returns to his present having helped rescue Polly, but he'll never see St Paul's again, and one of his students has died on his watch]].
* BackFromTheDead: Due to the calamitous nature of the Blitz, quite a few characters go missing and are presumed or pronounced dead, only to show up against perfectly fine. The most notable is [[spoiler:Mike, who fakes his death, but in the end actually dies for real]].
* BadLiar: Sir Godfrey tells Polly that what makes her great as an actress also paradoxically makes her a terrible liar: her thoughts and emotions are transparently visible to all.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Polly returns to her timeline and has fallen in love with the now-age-appropriate Colin. Eileen stays behind to live a happy life raising Binnie and Alf along with the Vicar. However, she'll die at a relatively young age from cancer. Mike dies having sacrificed his life to save his fellow time travelers. Sir Godfrey dies before the end of the war and several other friends have died along the way. Mr. Dunworthy returns to his present having helped rescue Polly, but he'll never see St Paul's again, and one of his students has died on his watch]].
* {{Catchphrase}}: Binnie calling Alf a "noddlehead."
* CharacterDevelopment: Colin has gone from a precocious kid in ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' to a precocious teen scholar, then matures into a seasoned and capable adult by the end.
* CharacterDevelopment: Colin has gone from a precocious kid in ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' to a precocious teen scholar, then matures into a seasoned and capable adult by the end.
* DramaticIrony: Due to the interwoven plot and time lines, the reader is often privy to more information than the POV character, leading to many instances of this. The biggest example is when we see [[spoiler:Mike's last moments with Polly]] for the second time from the opposite person's perspective.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Eileen is first introduced taking care of Theodore, an insufferable wet blanket of a child. She's patient and extremely responsible with him, establishing her as a good-hearted person with a soft spot for children.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Eileen is first introduced taking care of Theodore, an insufferable wet blanket of a child. She's patient and extremely responsible with him, establishing her as a good-hearted person with a soft spot for children.
* FakedTheirDead: [[spoiler:Mike fakes his death so that he can be more free to help Eileen and Polly escape the past. He ends up dying anyway]].
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* ForWantOfANail: What Michael worries about, though Polly says it's just InSpiteOfANail.
** Polly namechecks the trope, however, when she speculates that [[spoiler:originally things ''didn't'' work out and that Hitler ''won'' World War II and it was only through the (unintentional) intervention of time travelers that the Allies won, making it so the Allies had ''always'' won and any change time travelers had made had been made because they had already made it, because it was so incredibly improbably that various secrets would stay secret.]] Confused yet?
** For some reason, time travelers in Connie Willis books, despite knowing the net won't open if it causes a paradox, never quite grasp this works going from the past to the future too. [[spoiler: The reason they get stranded is almost certainly that leaving things as they currently are would cause a paradox, so they have to hang around to ForWantOfANail history ''back'' to some non-paradox configuration.]]
* GetBackToTheFuture
** Polly namechecks the trope, however, when she speculates that [[spoiler:originally things ''didn't'' work out and that Hitler ''won'' World War II and it was only through the (unintentional) intervention of time travelers that the Allies won, making it so the Allies had ''always'' won and any change time travelers had made had been made because they had already made it, because it was so incredibly improbably that various secrets would stay secret.]] Confused yet?
** For some reason, time travelers in Connie Willis books, despite knowing the net won't open if it causes a paradox, never quite grasp this works going from the past to the future too. [[spoiler: The reason they get stranded is almost certainly that leaving things as they currently are would cause a paradox, so they have to hang around to ForWantOfANail history ''back'' to some non-paradox configuration.]]
* GetBackToTheFuture
to:
* ForWantOfANail: What Michael worries about, though The time travelers, particularly Michael, worry that they will act as a ButterflyOfDoom and cause the Allies to lose the war. Polly says it's just InSpiteOfANail.
** Pollyeven namechecks the trope, however, when she speculates trope.
* FormerTeenRebel: In 1995, it's revealed that[[spoiler:originally things ''didn't'' work [[spoiler:street urchins Alf and Binnie have both matured into responsible adults, and Alf is actually a judge]].
* GenreSavvy: It's implied that, along with Polly's [[BadLiar incompetence at lying]], Sir Godfrey figured outand that Hitler ''won'' World War II and it was only through the (unintentional) intervention of time travelers that the Allies won, making it so the Allies had ''always'' won and any change time travelers had made had been made because they had already made it, because it was so incredibly improbably that various secrets would stay secret.]] Confused yet?
** For some reason, time travelers in Connie Willis books, despite knowing the net won't open if it causes a paradox, never quite grasp this works going[[spoiler:she's from the past future]] due to his encyclopedic knowledge of storytelling. When he confronts her about it, he speaks in storytelling terms.
* GetBackToTheFuture: Our heroes are stuck in 1940s Britain and need to get back to thefuture too. [[spoiler: The reason they get stranded is almost certainly that leaving things as they currently are would cause a paradox, so they have to hang around to ForWantOfANail history ''back'' to some non-paradox configuration.]]
* GetBackToTheFuturefuture, where they're from.
** Polly
* FormerTeenRebel: In 1995, it's revealed that
* GenreSavvy: It's implied that, along with Polly's [[BadLiar incompetence at lying]], Sir Godfrey figured out
** For some reason, time travelers in Connie Willis books, despite knowing the net won't open if it causes a paradox, never quite grasp this works going
* GetBackToTheFuture: Our heroes are stuck in 1940s Britain and need to get back to the
* GetBackToTheFuture
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* GlamorousWartimeSinger: She doesn't sing, but Polly's performances as "Air Raid Adelaide" in ENSA ("Every Night, Sexy Acts!") qualify.
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* GlamorousWartimeSinger: She doesn't sing, but Polly's performances as "Air Raid Adelaide" in ENSA ("Every Night, Sexy Acts!") qualify.serves as visual stimulation for the troops on leave.
Changed line(s) 49 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay: Eileen chooses to take TheSlowPath.]]
to:
* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay: Eileen IChooseToStay: [[spoiler:Eileen]] chooses to take TheSlowPath.]]
* InformedAttractiveness: Very late in the story, Colin describes Eileen as being rather pretty. Polly, however, is said to be very attractive and collects many unwanted suitors throughout the story.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Sir Godfrey always speaks in theatrical terms. In the end, he asks Polly, "Is it a comedy or a tragedy?" Polly responds that it's [[spoiler:a comedy, meaning that everything will work out OK]]. However, their conversation could also be seen as referring to the book itself.
* LethalChef: Polly and Eileen room in a boarding house run by Mrs. Ricket, who is both extremely cheap and a terrible cook. They frequently gripe about the horrible food she serves as part of their room and board.
* LethalChef: Polly and Eileen room in a boarding house run by Mrs. Ricket, who is both extremely cheap and a terrible cook. They frequently gripe about the horrible food she serves as part of their room and board.
* MayDecemberRomance: Sir Godfrey quickly falls in love with the beautiful young Polly after she reveals her skill in acting, even though she's about 50 years younger than him. Polly returns his love platonicaly. Their out-of-sync romance is a more pronounced and gender-flipped version of Colin's love for Polly in spite of being too young for her.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Of the three stuck time travelers, the only man makes it his mission to save the two women. [[spoiler:He sacrifices his life to do so]].
* MsFanservice: Polly receives a job entertaining the troops as Air Raid Adelaide. Her whole job is simply walking out in a skimpy costume, and she quickly becomes a local favorite.
* MsFanservice: Polly receives a job entertaining the troops as Air Raid Adelaide. Her whole job is simply walking out in a skimpy costume, and she quickly becomes a local favorite.
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* OfficerAndAGentleman: RAF pilot Steven Lang.
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* OfficerAndAGentleman: RAF pilot Steven Lang.Lang is brave, gallant, intelligent and very smooth. Polly finds him charming in spite of herself, if a bit frivolous.
* PerspectiveReversal: Polly rushes to save a man caught in a V-1 explosion but gets separated from him and feels uncommonly committed to finding out what happened to him. In a later chapter, he switch to a different perspective and discover that [[spoiler:the man is actually Mike from Polly's future, and he's trying to tell her about her future]].
Changed line(s) 70 (click to see context) from:
* SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] knew all along that Polly wasn't who she said she was. It's not clear how much he knew, but TheReveal is probably the biggest TearJerker in the book.
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* SecretSecretKeeper: RunningGag:
** The holy terror of the Hodbins wreaking havoc wherever they go.
** Sir Godfrey's undying hatred of the works of [[Literature/PeterPan J.M. Barrie]].
** Theodore whining about wanting to do the opposite of whatever the adults are trying to get him to do.
* SecretSecretKeeper:
** [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] knew all along that Polly wasn't who she said she was. It's not clear how much he knew, but TheReveal is probably the biggest TearJerker in thebook.book.
** Binnie and Alf had figured out that [[spoiler:Eileen was lying about where she came from]] long ago, but did not reveal their suspicions to her.
* SeriousBusiness: Polly's air raid shelter group passes the time together by putting on stage productions and performing in the London underground. Even though they're essentially amateur buskers, Sir Godfrey, a [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra famous actor]], insists on treating their performances with the gravity due to a professional production.
** The holy terror of the Hodbins wreaking havoc wherever they go.
** Sir Godfrey's undying hatred of the works of [[Literature/PeterPan J.M. Barrie]].
** Theodore whining about wanting to do the opposite of whatever the adults are trying to get him to do.
* SecretSecretKeeper:
** [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] knew all along that Polly wasn't who she said she was. It's not clear how much he knew, but TheReveal is probably the biggest TearJerker in the
** Binnie and Alf had figured out that [[spoiler:Eileen was lying about where she came from]] long ago, but did not reveal their suspicions to her.
* SeriousBusiness: Polly's air raid shelter group passes the time together by putting on stage productions and performing in the London underground. Even though they're essentially amateur buskers, Sir Godfrey, a [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra famous actor]], insists on treating their performances with the gravity due to a professional production.
* SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: Merope Ward has red hair and green eyes. In the Blitz, she passes herself off as a maid of Irish extraction with the very Irish name Eileen O'Reilly.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Colin is quite convinced that Polly is the only person he'll ever love, even though she's 8 years older than him.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Colin is quite convinced that Polly is the only person he'll ever love, even though she's 8 years older than him.
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** References when Colin tells Polly that he's going to travel through time for many years and then return to the same time he left from so that he'll be older while Polly will remain the same age, thus making a romance between them possible.
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** References Referenced when Colin tells Polly that he's going to travel through time for many years and then return to the same time he left from so that he'll be older while Polly his age will remain the same age, match Polly's when he returns, thus making a romance between them possible.possible. Polly thinks it's a terrible idea.
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* StatuesqueStunner:
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* UnwantedHarem: Due to being in incompatible time periods, time travelers often find themselves ducking the advances of others.
** Polly is frequently annoyed by the attentions of suitors, particularly the smooth-talking Stephen Lang. She can't have any romantic involvements with anyone, because they're all from a century in her past.
** Mike is alarmed when a barkeep's daughter sets her sights on him, and other men around him are surprised when he rebuffs her advances.
** Colin runs into an older woman who'd fallen in love with him decades earlier while he was time traveling and had to ditch her. He feels guilty about it.
** Polly is frequently annoyed by the attentions of suitors, particularly the smooth-talking Stephen Lang. She can't have any romantic involvements with anyone, because they're all from a century in her past.
** Mike is alarmed when a barkeep's daughter sets her sights on him, and other men around him are surprised when he rebuffs her advances.
** Colin runs into an older woman who'd fallen in love with him decades earlier while he was time traveling and had to ditch her. He feels guilty about it.
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* AerithAndBob: The time travelers from the future include Michael, Polly, Colin and... Merope. It's a Greek name found in mythology meaning a side-turned face. Apparently it's not an unusual name in the future, but Merope has to use an alias in 1940 so as not to stick out.
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* ButterflyOfDoom: What Michael Davies worries about after [[spoiler:actually going to Dunkirk itself, a "divergence point," and saving a soldier's life.]]
** ''Every character'' finds themselves causing some small change in history and spends the rest of the book agonizing about whether [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel they've caused the Allies to lose the war]].
** ''Every character'' finds themselves causing some small change in history and spends the rest of the book agonizing about whether [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel they've caused the Allies to lose the war]].
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* ButterflyOfDoom: What Michael Davies worries about after [[spoiler:actually going to Dunkirk itself, a "divergence point," and saving a soldier's life.]]
** ''Every character'' finds themselves causingThe three time travelers are terrified that they might change history in some small change in way that will cause a chain reaction alters history and spends so that the rest of the book agonizing about whether [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel they've caused the Allies to lose the war]].war]]. They are constantly checking the latest local news to see if things are different from the history they remember.
** ''Every character'' finds themselves causing
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* DiabolusExMachina: Especially in ''All Clear''; every time they try to find other time travelers, circumstances conspire to keep them away.
to:
* DiabolusExMachina: Especially in ''All Clear''; every time they try Circumstances seem to find other time travelers, circumstances conspire to keep the time travelers from reaching fellow time travelers and achieve other goals that could help them away.escape. [[spoiler:It's suggested that the continuum is responsible for arranging events so that the time travelers remain in the past as long as they can and fix the timeline]].
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* EmbarrassingFirstName: Binnie Hodbin's first name is [[spoiler:Hodbin]].
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* LargeHam: Sir Godfrey, one of the people Polly befriends during the raid, is a Shakespearean actor and sometimes very ham-ish.
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* LargeHam: Sir Godfrey, one of the people Polly befriends during the raid, is a Shakespearean actor classically trained actor. He's prone to quoting dramatic lines from Shakespeare at the drop of a hat and sometimes very ham-ish.generally making a big show of himself.
Changed line(s) 57 (click to see context) from:
* MeaningfulRename: Polly Churchill can't use her real last name in WWII for obvious reasons. Instead, she uses characters from Shakespeare. [[spoiler: Which is a hint that Mary (for which Polly is a nickname) Kent (from Theatre/KingLear) is Polly. And not only is Douglas, the girl introduced at VE Day, a character in Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, it is also a type of motorcycle-- which hints that Douglas is Mary Kent, the FANY who mistook a motorcycle for a V-1, who is ''also'' Polly.]]
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* MeaningfulRename: MeaningfulRename:
** Polly Churchill can't use her real last name in WWII for obvious reasons. Instead, she uses characters from Shakespeare. [[spoiler: Which is a hint that Mary (for which Polly is a nickname) Kent (from Theatre/KingLear) is Polly. And not only is Douglas, the girl introduced at VE Day, a character in Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, it is also a type of motorcycle-- which hints that Douglas is Mary Kent, the FANY who mistook a motorcycle for a V-1, who is ''also'' Polly.]]
** Polly Churchill can't use her real last name in WWII for obvious reasons. Instead, she uses characters from Shakespeare. [[spoiler: Which is a hint that Mary (for which Polly is a nickname) Kent (from Theatre/KingLear) is Polly. And not only is Douglas, the girl introduced at VE Day, a character in Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, it is also a type of motorcycle-- which hints that Douglas is Mary Kent, the FANY who mistook a motorcycle for a V-1, who is ''also'' Polly.]]
* TheNameless: Binnie Hodbin reveals that she has no actual first name. "Binnie" just refers to her surname.
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* PrecociousCrush: Colin, on Polly
* TheRealHeroes: The major theme of the books, sometimes [[{{Anvilicious}} anviliciously]] so. The whole point is to emphasize that the nameless ambulance drivers and sailors and nurses and air raid wardens and firefighters and codebreakers and shopgirls and servants, etc... helped win the war.
* TheRealHeroes: The major theme of the books, sometimes [[{{Anvilicious}} anviliciously]] so. The whole point is to emphasize that the nameless ambulance drivers and sailors and nurses and air raid wardens and firefighters and codebreakers and shopgirls and servants, etc... helped win the war.
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* ThePollyanna: Eileen's primary characteristic is that she's eternally optimistic. Polly has trouble telling her the truth because she doesn't want to break her cheerful spirit.
* PrecociousCrush:Colin, Colin is a 17-year-old with a massive crush on Polly
the 25-year-old Polly. She states that she's too old for him, but he insists that he'll deliberately take TheSlowPath until he matches her age. [[spoiler:This is ultimately what happens, though not by design]].
* TheRealHeroes:The A major theme of the books, sometimes [[{{Anvilicious}} anviliciously]] so. The whole point series is to emphasize that virtually everyone who lived through the nameless ambulance drivers war contributed to victory in some way, whether large or small, direct or highly indirect. Polly thinks about this very plainly in the final pages, rattling off many of the people she's met along the way and sailors and nurses and air raid wardens and firefighters and codebreakers and shopgirls and servants, etc... helped win the war.calling them heroes.
* PrecociousCrush:
* TheRealHeroes:
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* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:Eileen decides to stay in 1941 to raise Alf and Binnie leading to...]]
to:
* TheSlowPath: TheSlowPath:
** References when Colin tells Polly that he's going to travel through time for many years and then return to the same time he left from so that he'll be older while Polly will remain the same age, thus making a romance between them possible.
** [[spoiler:Eileendecides to stay stays behind in 1941 the past to raise Alf and Binnie leading to...]]Binnie. When Colin arrives in 1995 looking for someone who remembers the time travelers, she finds an old Binnie, who tells him that Eileen lives her whole life in the past and died years ago]].
** [[spoiler:Colin spends so many years looking for Polly that by the time he finds her, he's about her age, making their romance possible just as he wanted]].
** References when Colin tells Polly that he's going to travel through time for many years and then return to the same time he left from so that he'll be older while Polly will remain the same age, thus making a romance between them possible.
** [[spoiler:Eileen
** [[spoiler:Colin spends so many years looking for Polly that by the time he finds her, he's about her age, making their romance possible just as he wanted]].
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* StiffUpperLip: They're British. It's the Blitz. [[MemeticMutation Keep calm and carry on.]]
to:
* StiffUpperLip: They're British. It's Discussed. Even though they'd been expecting it, the time travelers are amazed to witness the casual fortitude shown by common British subjects during the Blitz. [[MemeticMutation Keep calm and carry on.]]
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* TimeTravel
to:
* TimeTravelTimeTravel: The plot centers on several time travelers who become stuck in Britain during the Blitz.
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** Arguably Dunworthy and St Paul's Cathedral, which no longer exists in his time. At the very least he never visits the place without going into raptures.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: Like all of the books in the series except ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'', the Blitz is apparently the nexus of all space and time.
* WriteBackToTheFuture
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: Like all of the books in the series except ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'', the Blitz is apparently the nexus of all space and time.
* WriteBackToTheFuture
to:
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: Like all of the books
* WriteBackToTheFuture
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* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: because of that StableTimeLoop. None of the characters in three books and a short story seem to have really taken this in, though, [[spoiler:except Merope, which is presumably why she was PutOnABus at the end of this one]].
to:
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: because of Discussed. The time travelers are very careful not to change the future with their presence in the past, but they ultimately theorize that the continuum is a StableTimeLoop. None It still takes them a lot of thought to extrapolate out that their actions in different parts of the characters in three books and a short story seem to time stream have really taken this in, though, [[spoiler:except Merope, which is presumably why she was PutOnABus at the end of this one]].already happened and cannot be changed.
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* NeverLiveItDown: In universe, Mary Kent's fellow [=FANYs=] insist on calling her every possible motorcycle name after she mistakes the sound of an old sputtering motorcycle for a V-1 bomb.
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* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Mary Kent's fellow [=FANYs=] insist on calling her every possible motorcycle name after she mistakes the sound of an old sputtering motorcycle for a V-1 bomb.
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-- William Shakespeare, ''{{Hamlet}}''
to:
-- William Shakespeare, ''{{Hamlet}}''
''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''
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** To replace her EmbarrassingFirstName, Binnie also tries on a bunch of different names, from Vivian to Rapunzel. She finally settles on [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Eileen]]]].
to:
** To replace her EmbarrassingFirstName, Binnie also tries on a bunch of different names, from Vivian to Rapunzel. She finally settles on [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Eileen]]]].[[spoiler:Eileen]].
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Useful Notes/ pages are not tropes
Deleted line(s) 51 (click to see context) :
* TheHomeFront: Merope, Michael, and Polly all observe this. Polly went ''specifically'' to observe how the British went from panic at the beginning of the Blitz to being more calm and stoic.
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''Blackout / All Clear'' is one book divided into two, written by Creator/ConnieWillis, and set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The books were published only a few months apart, in 2010, and were given a HugoAward as a single work.
to:
''Blackout / All Clear'' is one book divided into two, written by Creator/ConnieWillis, and set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The books were published only a few months apart, in 2010, and were given a HugoAward UsefulNotes/HugoAward as a single work.
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Moving a trope to YMMV tab
Deleted line(s) 39 (click to see context) :
* FakeAmerican: Michael Davies posing as Mike Davis. This is because he was supposed to go to Pearl Harbor first, but his assignments were switched at the last minute.
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None
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* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Played straight with the worries of the characters, after they can't get back to the future, possibly because it doesn't exist any more. [[spoiler:Ultimately adverted, and then a real life [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guess]] is presented to invert the entire concept. Considering some of the astronomically lucky breaks that English got, including many that were due to time travelers, a theory that universe is using time travel to retroactively make the Germans ''lose'' the war is not entirely crazy.]]
to:
* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Played straight with the worries of the characters, after they can't get back to the future, possibly because it doesn't exist any more. [[spoiler:Ultimately adverted, averted, and then a real life [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guess]] is presented to invert the entire concept. Considering some of the astronomically lucky breaks that English got, including many that were due to time travelers, a theory that universe is using time travel to retroactively make the Germans ''lose'' the war is not entirely crazy.]]
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* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Michael insists on telling Colin everything he knows about Polly and Eileen and where they are before they go back to Oxford...delaying things enough that Michael doesn't survive.]]
to:
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Michael insists on telling Colin everything he knows about Polly and Eileen and where they are before they go back to Oxford... delaying things enough that Michael doesn't survive.]]
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** The whole Fortitude South counterespionage cell in 1944 uses the names of the characters from ''TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''. However appropriate, it's bizarre to hear the (male) commander referred to as "Lady Bracknell".
to:
** The whole Fortitude South counterespionage cell in 1944 uses the names of the characters from ''TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''.''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''. However appropriate, it's bizarre to hear the (male) commander referred to as "Lady Bracknell".
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None
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* WorldWarII: Like all of the books in the series except ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'', the Blitz is apparently the nexus of all space and time.
to:
* WorldWarII: UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: Like all of the books in the series except ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'', the Blitz is apparently the nexus of all space and time.
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they\'re on the disambiguation page
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Should not be confused with the GameShow ''Series/{{Blackout}}'', or the VideoGame ''Videogame/{{Blackout}}''.
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Should not be confused with the GameShow ''Series/{{Blackout}}'', or the VideoGame ''Videogame/{{Blackout}}''.
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None
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''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' is one book divided into two, written by Creator/ConnieWillis, and set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The books were published only a few months apart, in 2010, and were given a HugoAward as a single work.
to:
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Sinkhole
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And then things start to go wrong. Events don't go as planned. Things [[ItGotWorse get worse]]. And suddenly, none of their drops to the future are opening. Nobody, it seems, is coming to get them...
to:
And then things start to go wrong. Events don't go as planned. Things [[ItGotWorse get worse]].worse. And suddenly, none of their drops to the future are opening. Nobody, it seems, is coming to get them...
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
move YMMV tropes to YMMV page
Deleted line(s) 43 (click to see context) :
* FridgeBrilliance: Other than her very early books, Willis's novels are very firmly divided into the categories of comedy and tragedy. Except this one - which is it? It turns out [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey has been telling us all along in his stage instructions "This is a comedy, not a tragedy!" and ultimately asks this of Polly (knowing she knows the future) who tells him "It is a comedy."]]
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* TearJerker: 50% of the books are tearjerkers. The rest are moments of [[HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]] and [[MomentOfAwesome awesome]].
** Of particular note is [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]]'s goodbye ("[[spoiler:Is it a comedy or a tragedy?]]") and [[spoiler:Eileen]]'s experiences at VE Day.
** Of particular note is [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]]'s goodbye ("[[spoiler:Is it a comedy or a tragedy?]]") and [[spoiler:Eileen]]'s experiences at VE Day.
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None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' is one book divided into two, written by ConnieWillis, and set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The books were published only a few months apart, in 2010, and were given a HugoAward as a single work.
to:
''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' is one book divided into two, written by ConnieWillis, Creator/ConnieWillis, and set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The books were published only a few months apart, in 2010, and were given a HugoAward as a single work.
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What ConnieWillis said about ''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'':
to:
What ConnieWillis Creator/ConnieWillis said about ''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'':
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None
Added DiffLines:
* FridgeBrilliance: Other than her very early books, Willis's novels are very firmly divided into the categories of comedy and tragedy. Except this one - which is it? It turns out [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey has been telling us all along in his stage instructions "This is a comedy, not a tragedy!" and ultimately asks this of Polly (knowing she knows the future) who tells him "It is a comedy."]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
One book divided into two by ConnieWillis, set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The second book, ''All Clear'', came out October 19, 2010.
to:
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moved to namespace
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[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Connie_Willis-Blackout_2010_3944.jpg]]
-->''Look Out in the Blackout!''\\
-- British Government Poster, 1939
-->''How all occasions do inform against me''\\
-- William Shakespeare, ''{{Hamlet}}''
One book divided into two by ConnieWillis, set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The second book, ''All Clear'', came out October 19, 2010.
In Oxford, in the year 2060, three historians are preparing to [[TimeTravel travel back]] to World War II:
* Michael Davies, posing as an American reporter, who wants to observe the heroism of the people at the evacuation of Dunkirk, from the safer vantage point of Dover.
* Merope Ward, posing as the servant Eileen O'Reilly, who is observing the children evacuated to the countryside during the Blitz.
* Polly Churchill (using the last name "Sebastian"), who wants to observe the Blitz itself, while posing as a shopgirl in Oxford Street.
Things seem to go well at first. Michael and Polly lose some time to "slippage," but all three go about in their assignments. Merope has her hands full with the children (including sibling terrors, Alf and Binnie Hodbin), Polly finds a group to shelter with during the raids, and Michael goes searching for a way to get to Dover in time.
And then things start to go wrong. Events don't go as planned. Things [[ItGotWorse get worse]]. And suddenly, none of their drops to the future are opening. Nobody, it seems, is coming to get them...
What ConnieWillis said about ''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'':
->"What are ''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' about? They’re about Dunkirk and ration books and D-Day and V-1 rockets, about tube shelters and Bletchley Park and gas masks and stirrup pumps and Christmas pantomimes and cows and crossword puzzles and the deception campaign. And mostly the book’s about all the people who "did their bit" to save the world from Hitler -- Shakespearean actors and ambulance drivers and vicars and landladies and nurses and [=WRENs=] and RAF pilots and Winston Churchill and General Patton and Agatha Christie -- heroes all."
----
!!Tropes used in this novel:
* AnachronicOrder: The fact that it's a time-travel story makes this sort of obligatory, but [[spoiler:Ernest's sections in the first book]] take place both subjectively and objectively after the rest of the story.
* AnyoneCanDie: It's the Blitz. Even though Polly knows where the bombs will drop in 1940, everyone is still in danger, and, in the end, [[spoiler:Michael does die from a V-1 attack]].
* BlitzEvacuees: The children that Merope goes to observe.
* BrattyHalfPint: Binnie and Alf.
* ButterflyOfDoom: What Michael Davies worries about after [[spoiler:actually going to Dunkirk itself, a "divergence point," and saving a soldier's life.]]
** ''Every character'' finds themselves causing some small change in history and spends the rest of the book agonizing about whether [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel they've caused the Allies to lose the war]].
* CharacterNameAlias: Let's see...
** Polly tends to use names from Creator/WilliamShakespeare.
** The whole Fortitude South counterespionage cell in 1944 uses the names of the characters from ''TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''. However appropriate, it's bizarre to hear the (male) commander referred to as "Lady Bracknell".
* ClassicallyTrainedExtra: Sir Godfrey, a legendary Shakespearean actor who finds himself putting on simplistic plays he despises.
* ContrivedCoincidence: A lot of them. [[spoiler:Vaguely justified by the continuum doing its thing]].
* DespairEventHorizon: Both Polly and Mr. Dunworthy go through this when [[spoiler:Mr. Dunworthy tells her he thinks everyone they ever met will die because of them]].
* DiabolusExMachina: Especially in ''All Clear''; every time they try to find other time travelers, circumstances conspire to keep them away.
* {{Doorstopper}}: Each book is over 600 pages, making the total over 1,200. No wonder it took her eight years to write it.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Binnie Hodbin's first name is [[spoiler:Hodbin]].
* FakeAmerican: Michael Davies posing as Mike Davis. This is because he was supposed to go to Pearl Harbor first, but his assignments were switched at the last minute.
* FamedInStory
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The historians are reasonably prepared for their observation missions to WWII, but not for an extended stay-- and the implications of it.
* ForWantOfANail: What Michael worries about, though Polly says it's just InSpiteOfANail.
** Polly namechecks the trope, however, when she speculates that [[spoiler:originally things ''didn't'' work out and that Hitler ''won'' World War II and it was only through the (unintentional) intervention of time travelers that the Allies won, making it so the Allies had ''always'' won and any change time travelers had made had been made because they had already made it, because it was so incredibly improbably that various secrets would stay secret.]] Confused yet?
** For some reason, time travelers in Connie Willis books, despite knowing the net won't open if it causes a paradox, never quite grasp this works going from the past to the future too. [[spoiler: The reason they get stranded is almost certainly that leaving things as they currently are would cause a paradox, so they have to hang around to ForWantOfANail history ''back'' to some non-paradox configuration.]]
* GetBackToTheFuture
* GivingRadioToTheRomans: The trio makes it a point to avert this, even though it means not being able to share foreknowledge (such as [[TimeTravellersAreSpies locations of bombings]]) with contemporary people they care about. Eileen stealthily plays it straight by knowing to give Binnie aspirin to lower her extreme fever.
* GlamorousWartimeSinger: She doesn't sing, but Polly's performances as "Air Raid Adelaide" in ENSA ("Every Night, Sexy Acts!") qualify.
* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Played straight with the worries of the characters, after they can't get back to the future, possibly because it doesn't exist any more. [[spoiler:Ultimately adverted, and then a real life [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guess]] is presented to invert the entire concept. Considering some of the astronomically lucky breaks that English got, including many that were due to time travelers, a theory that universe is using time travel to retroactively make the Germans ''lose'' the war is not entirely crazy.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Michael gets one after [[spoiler:saving a soldier at Dunkirk and having his foot injured]]. Polly gets one [[spoiler:during a raid when her drop point won't open]] and then another [[spoiler:when she thinks everybody she befriended is dead]]. Merope, so far, hasn't had one yet.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Michael insists on telling Colin everything he knows about Polly and Eileen and where they are before they go back to Oxford...delaying things enough that Michael doesn't survive.]]
* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: If a theory presented in the book is correct, it logically follows that time travel doesn't want people to kill Hitler, because [[spoiler:he's incompetent. It's using him to ''lose'' the war.]]
* TheHomeFront: Merope, Michael, and Polly all observe this. Polly went ''specifically'' to observe how the British went from panic at the beginning of the Blitz to being more calm and stoic.
* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay: Eileen chooses to take TheSlowPath.]]
* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous: Subverted as they don't really meet anyone famous. Michael eventually does meet [[spoiler:General Patton, Alan Turing, and the Queen]] and Eileen gets a glimpse of [[spoiler:Agatha Christie]], but that's about it.
* KidsAreCruel: At least Alf and Binnie are. (Though subverted in ''All Clear'' when [[spoiler:it turns out they were instrumental (though unintentional) in helping the continuum fix itself]].)
* LargeHam: Sir Godfrey, one of the people Polly befriends during the raid, is a Shakespearean actor and sometimes very ham-ish.
* LastMinuteHookup: [[spoiler:Eileen and the vicar]].
* LittleMissBadass: Binnie, for helping driving the ambulance as well as her actions in the future.
* MeaningfulRename: Polly Churchill can't use her real last name in WWII for obvious reasons. Instead, she uses characters from Shakespeare. [[spoiler: Which is a hint that Mary (for which Polly is a nickname) Kent (from Theatre/KingLear) is Polly. And not only is Douglas, the girl introduced at VE Day, a character in Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, it is also a type of motorcycle-- which hints that Douglas is Mary Kent, the FANY who mistook a motorcycle for a V-1, who is ''also'' Polly.]]
** To replace her EmbarrassingFirstName, Binnie also tries on a bunch of different names, from Vivian to Rapunzel. She finally settles on [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Eileen]]]].
* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The chapters generally switch around between different months of 1940, but sometimes they go to 1944, and the early chapters are set in 2060. It's particularly muddled in the first half of the first book, where Mike, Eileen, and Polly are all the same distance in time from leaving Oxford but because of their different arrival dates are therefore passing through the events of 1940 at different points in the story. The fact that it keeps cutting back to Mary, Ernest, and Douglas in the later part of the war doesn't exactly help untangle the chronology, especially as it turns out that [[spoiler:one of them is genuinely in the future via TheSlowPath and the other two are the same person, in the objective future but her subjective past]]. Got that?
* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Mike]], to Eileen's insistence. [[spoiler:She's right]].
* NeverLiveItDown: In universe, Mary Kent's fellow [=FANYs=] insist on calling her every possible motorcycle name after she mistakes the sound of an old sputtering motorcycle for a V-1 bomb.
* OfficerAndAGentleman: RAF pilot Steven Lang.
* OnlyOneMeAllowedRightNow: "Deadline" has a grimly literal meaning: if you've already been to a point in time, later versions of you are not allowed there. The continuum will enforce this, if necessary, by killing off all extraneous versions of you. So, if you've already been to 1 May 1945 and you later travel to an earlier point in time, the continuum will arrange for you to have an unfortunate accident before 1 May 1945 rolls around.
* ParentalSubstitute: Eileen, to Alf and Binnie.
* PrecociousCrush: Colin, on Polly
* TheRealHeroes: The major theme of the books, sometimes [[{{Anvilicious}} anviliciously]] so. The whole point is to emphasize that the nameless ambulance drivers and sailors and nurses and air raid wardens and firefighters and codebreakers and shopgirls and servants, etc... helped win the war.
* RealNameAsAnAlias: Polly uses her first name and Michael Davies goes by "Mike Davis". Then again, no one in the past knows their real names. Merope only has to go by an alias because her name isn't common in the time period.
* RedHerring: DoubleSubverted; the many, many red herrings the characters ignore eventually make sense.
* SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] knew all along that Polly wasn't who she said she was. It's not clear how much he knew, but TheReveal is probably the biggest TearJerker in the book.
* ShownTheirWork
* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:Eileen decides to stay in 1941 to raise Alf and Binnie leading to...]]
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:Colin is able to rescue Polly and Mr. Dunworthy because Binnie was there and told him when/where they would be. Binnie knew he would be there because he ''already was there''. Basically, ALL of time travel is this: every change you make is okay, because you have already made that change.]]
* StiffUpperLip: They're British. It's the Blitz. [[MemeticMutation Keep calm and carry on.]]
* TearJerker: 50% of the books are tearjerkers. The rest are moments of [[HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]] and [[MomentOfAwesome awesome]].
** Of particular note is [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]]'s goodbye ("[[spoiler:Is it a comedy or a tragedy?]]") and [[spoiler:Eileen]]'s experiences at VE Day.
* TheReveal: In the first book, there are three characters that are shown, but not explained: Mary Kent, the ambulance driver during the V-1 and V-2 attacks who is [[spoiler:Polly pre-going to the Blitz]]; "Douglas," a woman observing VE-Day who is [[spoiler:also Mary Kent/Polly]]; and Earnest, who is working on a deception campaign for the government and is [[spoiler:actually Michael Davies after he fakes his own death]].
* TimeTravel
* TimeTravelersAreSpies: There are several mentions of the historians specifically making efforts to not act suspicious, but you'd think after a few weeks or so they'd work out a code for, "When and where are the air raids tonight, Polly?!" for when they're around contemps. In-universe, historian Gerald Phipps was attempting to join an intelligence operation at Bletchley Park, and [[spoiler:Ernest/Michael]] joins the disinformation counter-intelligence force at Fortitude South.
* TimeTravelRomance: Played straight in several different ways. Polly falls a little for Sir Godfrey, from the past, and of course Colin (from the same future she's from) is searching spacetime for her. [[spoiler:Not that Colin minds the former, of course; he may or may not have had a fling with a girl named Ann in the 1970s. Eileen later falls in love with the Vicar Goode, who is a century older than her, but she does it in the normal way ''after'' she's already decided not to go home.]]
** Arguably Dunworthy and St Paul's Cathedral, which no longer exists in his time. At the very least he never visits the place without going into raptures.
* WorldWarII: Like all of the books in the series except ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'', the Blitz is apparently the nexus of all space and time.
* WriteBackToTheFuture
* YearOutsideHourInside: Sort of. Eileen was there first (her assignment began in late 1939 and was well-underway by the time we meet her in the book, and she occasionally came back to Oxford to report and get crash courses in supplementary skills); Michael from May 1940 before Dunkirk; Polly from September 1940, towards the beginning of the Blitz; and [[spoiler:Mr. Dunworthy attempts to go through to September after Polly but winds up in December 1940. Colin spends at least four years doing research, including going to other time periods to access records destroyed in the St. Paul's pinpoint, and attempting to find the historians. He finds Michael first in June 1944 after D-Day, who gives him the needed information to find the others in April 1941.]]
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: because of that StableTimeLoop. None of the characters in three books and a short story seem to have really taken this in, though, [[spoiler:except Merope, which is presumably why she was PutOnABus at the end of this one]].
----
-->''Look Out in the Blackout!''\\
-- British Government Poster, 1939
-->''How all occasions do inform against me''\\
-- William Shakespeare, ''{{Hamlet}}''
One book divided into two by ConnieWillis, set in her "Fire Watch"-universe (along with ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''ToSayNothingOfTheDog''). The second book, ''All Clear'', came out October 19, 2010.
In Oxford, in the year 2060, three historians are preparing to [[TimeTravel travel back]] to World War II:
* Michael Davies, posing as an American reporter, who wants to observe the heroism of the people at the evacuation of Dunkirk, from the safer vantage point of Dover.
* Merope Ward, posing as the servant Eileen O'Reilly, who is observing the children evacuated to the countryside during the Blitz.
* Polly Churchill (using the last name "Sebastian"), who wants to observe the Blitz itself, while posing as a shopgirl in Oxford Street.
Things seem to go well at first. Michael and Polly lose some time to "slippage," but all three go about in their assignments. Merope has her hands full with the children (including sibling terrors, Alf and Binnie Hodbin), Polly finds a group to shelter with during the raids, and Michael goes searching for a way to get to Dover in time.
And then things start to go wrong. Events don't go as planned. Things [[ItGotWorse get worse]]. And suddenly, none of their drops to the future are opening. Nobody, it seems, is coming to get them...
What ConnieWillis said about ''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'':
->"What are ''Blackout'' and ''All Clear'' about? They’re about Dunkirk and ration books and D-Day and V-1 rockets, about tube shelters and Bletchley Park and gas masks and stirrup pumps and Christmas pantomimes and cows and crossword puzzles and the deception campaign. And mostly the book’s about all the people who "did their bit" to save the world from Hitler -- Shakespearean actors and ambulance drivers and vicars and landladies and nurses and [=WRENs=] and RAF pilots and Winston Churchill and General Patton and Agatha Christie -- heroes all."
----
!!Tropes used in this novel:
* AnachronicOrder: The fact that it's a time-travel story makes this sort of obligatory, but [[spoiler:Ernest's sections in the first book]] take place both subjectively and objectively after the rest of the story.
* AnyoneCanDie: It's the Blitz. Even though Polly knows where the bombs will drop in 1940, everyone is still in danger, and, in the end, [[spoiler:Michael does die from a V-1 attack]].
* BlitzEvacuees: The children that Merope goes to observe.
* BrattyHalfPint: Binnie and Alf.
* ButterflyOfDoom: What Michael Davies worries about after [[spoiler:actually going to Dunkirk itself, a "divergence point," and saving a soldier's life.]]
** ''Every character'' finds themselves causing some small change in history and spends the rest of the book agonizing about whether [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel they've caused the Allies to lose the war]].
* CharacterNameAlias: Let's see...
** Polly tends to use names from Creator/WilliamShakespeare.
** The whole Fortitude South counterespionage cell in 1944 uses the names of the characters from ''TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''. However appropriate, it's bizarre to hear the (male) commander referred to as "Lady Bracknell".
* ClassicallyTrainedExtra: Sir Godfrey, a legendary Shakespearean actor who finds himself putting on simplistic plays he despises.
* ContrivedCoincidence: A lot of them. [[spoiler:Vaguely justified by the continuum doing its thing]].
* DespairEventHorizon: Both Polly and Mr. Dunworthy go through this when [[spoiler:Mr. Dunworthy tells her he thinks everyone they ever met will die because of them]].
* DiabolusExMachina: Especially in ''All Clear''; every time they try to find other time travelers, circumstances conspire to keep them away.
* {{Doorstopper}}: Each book is over 600 pages, making the total over 1,200. No wonder it took her eight years to write it.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Binnie Hodbin's first name is [[spoiler:Hodbin]].
* FakeAmerican: Michael Davies posing as Mike Davis. This is because he was supposed to go to Pearl Harbor first, but his assignments were switched at the last minute.
* FamedInStory
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The historians are reasonably prepared for their observation missions to WWII, but not for an extended stay-- and the implications of it.
* ForWantOfANail: What Michael worries about, though Polly says it's just InSpiteOfANail.
** Polly namechecks the trope, however, when she speculates that [[spoiler:originally things ''didn't'' work out and that Hitler ''won'' World War II and it was only through the (unintentional) intervention of time travelers that the Allies won, making it so the Allies had ''always'' won and any change time travelers had made had been made because they had already made it, because it was so incredibly improbably that various secrets would stay secret.]] Confused yet?
** For some reason, time travelers in Connie Willis books, despite knowing the net won't open if it causes a paradox, never quite grasp this works going from the past to the future too. [[spoiler: The reason they get stranded is almost certainly that leaving things as they currently are would cause a paradox, so they have to hang around to ForWantOfANail history ''back'' to some non-paradox configuration.]]
* GetBackToTheFuture
* GivingRadioToTheRomans: The trio makes it a point to avert this, even though it means not being able to share foreknowledge (such as [[TimeTravellersAreSpies locations of bombings]]) with contemporary people they care about. Eileen stealthily plays it straight by knowing to give Binnie aspirin to lower her extreme fever.
* GlamorousWartimeSinger: She doesn't sing, but Polly's performances as "Air Raid Adelaide" in ENSA ("Every Night, Sexy Acts!") qualify.
* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Played straight with the worries of the characters, after they can't get back to the future, possibly because it doesn't exist any more. [[spoiler:Ultimately adverted, and then a real life [[WildMassGuessing Wild Mass Guess]] is presented to invert the entire concept. Considering some of the astronomically lucky breaks that English got, including many that were due to time travelers, a theory that universe is using time travel to retroactively make the Germans ''lose'' the war is not entirely crazy.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Michael gets one after [[spoiler:saving a soldier at Dunkirk and having his foot injured]]. Polly gets one [[spoiler:during a raid when her drop point won't open]] and then another [[spoiler:when she thinks everybody she befriended is dead]]. Merope, so far, hasn't had one yet.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Michael insists on telling Colin everything he knows about Polly and Eileen and where they are before they go back to Oxford...delaying things enough that Michael doesn't survive.]]
* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: If a theory presented in the book is correct, it logically follows that time travel doesn't want people to kill Hitler, because [[spoiler:he's incompetent. It's using him to ''lose'' the war.]]
* TheHomeFront: Merope, Michael, and Polly all observe this. Polly went ''specifically'' to observe how the British went from panic at the beginning of the Blitz to being more calm and stoic.
* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay: Eileen chooses to take TheSlowPath.]]
* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous: Subverted as they don't really meet anyone famous. Michael eventually does meet [[spoiler:General Patton, Alan Turing, and the Queen]] and Eileen gets a glimpse of [[spoiler:Agatha Christie]], but that's about it.
* KidsAreCruel: At least Alf and Binnie are. (Though subverted in ''All Clear'' when [[spoiler:it turns out they were instrumental (though unintentional) in helping the continuum fix itself]].)
* LargeHam: Sir Godfrey, one of the people Polly befriends during the raid, is a Shakespearean actor and sometimes very ham-ish.
* LastMinuteHookup: [[spoiler:Eileen and the vicar]].
* LittleMissBadass: Binnie, for helping driving the ambulance as well as her actions in the future.
* MeaningfulRename: Polly Churchill can't use her real last name in WWII for obvious reasons. Instead, she uses characters from Shakespeare. [[spoiler: Which is a hint that Mary (for which Polly is a nickname) Kent (from Theatre/KingLear) is Polly. And not only is Douglas, the girl introduced at VE Day, a character in Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, it is also a type of motorcycle-- which hints that Douglas is Mary Kent, the FANY who mistook a motorcycle for a V-1, who is ''also'' Polly.]]
** To replace her EmbarrassingFirstName, Binnie also tries on a bunch of different names, from Vivian to Rapunzel. She finally settles on [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Eileen]]]].
* MeanwhileInTheFuture: The chapters generally switch around between different months of 1940, but sometimes they go to 1944, and the early chapters are set in 2060. It's particularly muddled in the first half of the first book, where Mike, Eileen, and Polly are all the same distance in time from leaving Oxford but because of their different arrival dates are therefore passing through the events of 1940 at different points in the story. The fact that it keeps cutting back to Mary, Ernest, and Douglas in the later part of the war doesn't exactly help untangle the chronology, especially as it turns out that [[spoiler:one of them is genuinely in the future via TheSlowPath and the other two are the same person, in the objective future but her subjective past]]. Got that?
* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Mike]], to Eileen's insistence. [[spoiler:She's right]].
* NeverLiveItDown: In universe, Mary Kent's fellow [=FANYs=] insist on calling her every possible motorcycle name after she mistakes the sound of an old sputtering motorcycle for a V-1 bomb.
* OfficerAndAGentleman: RAF pilot Steven Lang.
* OnlyOneMeAllowedRightNow: "Deadline" has a grimly literal meaning: if you've already been to a point in time, later versions of you are not allowed there. The continuum will enforce this, if necessary, by killing off all extraneous versions of you. So, if you've already been to 1 May 1945 and you later travel to an earlier point in time, the continuum will arrange for you to have an unfortunate accident before 1 May 1945 rolls around.
* ParentalSubstitute: Eileen, to Alf and Binnie.
* PrecociousCrush: Colin, on Polly
* TheRealHeroes: The major theme of the books, sometimes [[{{Anvilicious}} anviliciously]] so. The whole point is to emphasize that the nameless ambulance drivers and sailors and nurses and air raid wardens and firefighters and codebreakers and shopgirls and servants, etc... helped win the war.
* RealNameAsAnAlias: Polly uses her first name and Michael Davies goes by "Mike Davis". Then again, no one in the past knows their real names. Merope only has to go by an alias because her name isn't common in the time period.
* RedHerring: DoubleSubverted; the many, many red herrings the characters ignore eventually make sense.
* SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]] knew all along that Polly wasn't who she said she was. It's not clear how much he knew, but TheReveal is probably the biggest TearJerker in the book.
* ShownTheirWork
* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:Eileen decides to stay in 1941 to raise Alf and Binnie leading to...]]
* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:Colin is able to rescue Polly and Mr. Dunworthy because Binnie was there and told him when/where they would be. Binnie knew he would be there because he ''already was there''. Basically, ALL of time travel is this: every change you make is okay, because you have already made that change.]]
* StiffUpperLip: They're British. It's the Blitz. [[MemeticMutation Keep calm and carry on.]]
* TearJerker: 50% of the books are tearjerkers. The rest are moments of [[HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]] and [[MomentOfAwesome awesome]].
** Of particular note is [[spoiler:Sir Godfrey]]'s goodbye ("[[spoiler:Is it a comedy or a tragedy?]]") and [[spoiler:Eileen]]'s experiences at VE Day.
* TheReveal: In the first book, there are three characters that are shown, but not explained: Mary Kent, the ambulance driver during the V-1 and V-2 attacks who is [[spoiler:Polly pre-going to the Blitz]]; "Douglas," a woman observing VE-Day who is [[spoiler:also Mary Kent/Polly]]; and Earnest, who is working on a deception campaign for the government and is [[spoiler:actually Michael Davies after he fakes his own death]].
* TimeTravel
* TimeTravelersAreSpies: There are several mentions of the historians specifically making efforts to not act suspicious, but you'd think after a few weeks or so they'd work out a code for, "When and where are the air raids tonight, Polly?!" for when they're around contemps. In-universe, historian Gerald Phipps was attempting to join an intelligence operation at Bletchley Park, and [[spoiler:Ernest/Michael]] joins the disinformation counter-intelligence force at Fortitude South.
* TimeTravelRomance: Played straight in several different ways. Polly falls a little for Sir Godfrey, from the past, and of course Colin (from the same future she's from) is searching spacetime for her. [[spoiler:Not that Colin minds the former, of course; he may or may not have had a fling with a girl named Ann in the 1970s. Eileen later falls in love with the Vicar Goode, who is a century older than her, but she does it in the normal way ''after'' she's already decided not to go home.]]
** Arguably Dunworthy and St Paul's Cathedral, which no longer exists in his time. At the very least he never visits the place without going into raptures.
* WorldWarII: Like all of the books in the series except ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'', the Blitz is apparently the nexus of all space and time.
* WriteBackToTheFuture
* YearOutsideHourInside: Sort of. Eileen was there first (her assignment began in late 1939 and was well-underway by the time we meet her in the book, and she occasionally came back to Oxford to report and get crash courses in supplementary skills); Michael from May 1940 before Dunkirk; Polly from September 1940, towards the beginning of the Blitz; and [[spoiler:Mr. Dunworthy attempts to go through to September after Polly but winds up in December 1940. Colin spends at least four years doing research, including going to other time periods to access records destroyed in the St. Paul's pinpoint, and attempting to find the historians. He finds Michael first in June 1944 after D-Day, who gives him the needed information to find the others in April 1941.]]
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: because of that StableTimeLoop. None of the characters in three books and a short story seem to have really taken this in, though, [[spoiler:except Merope, which is presumably why she was PutOnABus at the end of this one]].
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