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On November 11 1919, the first anniversary of the Armistice that ended the Great War, two minutes of silence were observed for the first time as a tribute to those who had died during more than four years of fighting and killing. But what was then known as ‘The Great Silence’ brought mixed comfort, stirring up the remembered pain of those who still mourned their loved ones.

The Government’s decision that throughout the War no bodies should be returned to Britain for burial had denied everyone the cathartic experience of the funeral ritual, leaving hundreds of thousands of people, particularly women, paralysed by grief.

However people did not often talk of their distress, remaining silent on the matter, but instead threw themselves into activity, dancing to the new jazz bands, going to the cinema, or covering up their unhappiness with drink, drugs, shopping and sex. Despite the relief brought about by the silencing of the guns, a natural healing process appeared elusive.

Juliet Nicolson looks at the  two years that immediately followed the War during which  Britain and its people tried to come to terms with their recent catastrophe, as they either rejected adjusted to or embraced the resulting changes to their world.

Juliet Nicolson began writing after a long career in publishing on both sides of the Atlantic. She is the author of The Perfect Summer, Dancing into Shadow in 1911 and The Great Silence 1918-1920  Living in the Shadow of the Great War. She lives in East Sussex.