Stuart

Winston’s War

Feb 082011
 

Winston’s war is the first of four books that follow Winston through the war years.

It’s 1938 and the then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain has pulled off a masterstroke of diplomacy by securing “Peace for our time” thanks to a deal with Adolph Hitler.  Whilst Britain celebrates, Winston Churchill MP becomes ever more the villain as he seeks to replace compromise with conflict.  Intimately follow an outcast Winston as he defeats both his own internal gremlins and those within the House of Lords to become Britain’s newest Prime Minister.  All this, of course, set against the background of Europe, lost in retreat and looking for hope and leadership.

I loved this book.  Winston leaps off the page thanks to beautiful characterisation.  Churchill is well researched yet embellished with enough “writer’s licence” to give him back his human frailty and depth of thought.  Meanwhile key historical events are candidly experienced and explained through a number of interlaced side stories.

If you enjoy a good yarn that will teach you some of the less publicised truths behind Britains entry into WWII then you too will embrace this series of books.   On the other hand if you are a strict scholar of 20th Century history then you may find the odd fictional leap of faith unpalatable.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

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The Long Walk

Feb 052011
 

The truth can be an opiate when woven into a tale and The Long Walk is so much more than a story.  It is a tale that illustrates mans infinite capacity for cruelty, courage, deprivation and sacrifice in order to achieve the simplest of tasks – staying alive.

The book follows a young Polish Cavalry officer who is caught up in the Second World War and taken prisoner by the Russians.  Interrogated and processed, he is then shipped out in terrible conditions to a labour camp in Siberia.  This first part of the book provides a fascinating and humbling window into the cruelty and injustice of Stalin’s Russia.

It is at this point that the book takes off in a different direction.  Slavomir describes how he and his accomplices escape the camp and complete an epic journey across some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world.  This is a tale not of adventure (although there is some) but of the power of comradeship and hidden capability of men when life comes calling.  I was also touched by the humanity of strangers in faraway places.

This is a fabulous book not because it is technically clever or masterfully written (although it pulls you along beautifully) but because it is both humbling and inspiring at the same time.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

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© 2011 Grete Evans A blog of myths, romance, fantasy and thrills. Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha