The Blitz – from the German 'Blitzkrieg', lightning war – began as the Battle of Britain neared its conclusion. The Luftwaffe's sustained aerial bombing campaign against British urban centres lasted from September 1940 until May 1941. Over nine months, from Plymouth to Glasgow and Bristol to Newcastle, more than 43,500 civilians would die.

John Nichol has flown aircraft in combat, he has dropped bombs himself, but he knew little about the Blitz. The generation who endured it, including his parents, were often keen to keep silent and move on from the conflict that had consumed their childhoods.

Nearly half a million bombs were dropped on Britain in a few months, and every one of them had its own story. Beginning with the experience of John's mother and the attacks on the North East of England where he grew up, he explores what this series of assaults on the Home Front was truly like.

Interweaving the stories of survivors with modern experts, the perspective of those on the ground with the aircrew delivering destruction from on high, Blitz is a powerful new reckoning with one of the defining events of modern British history. It's about how a nation survived when death was a constant companion, and the deep, conflicting emotions experienced by all involved.