After nearly six years of total warfare spanning the entire globe, the end of the Second World War marked a period of frenzied celebration, commemoration and the beginning of the hard work to rebuild Britain into the great nation it had been.

Here, using Mirrorpix's formidable archive of contemporary images, we see fantastic scenes of jubilation, relief and commemoration of those lost. Also documented is the great effort and continuation of the wartime spirit that helped bring communities together to rebuild shattered infrastructure, and to piece together families fractured by wartime losses.

This spirit of celebration and society is captured for all time in the lens of the journalists' cameras, and would make a poignant, emotive addition to anyone's bookshelf.