978-0300270198
Review note: Special thanks to Yale University Press for providing an electronic review copy of this work –Booklight staff
Katherine Carter has spent, according to this work, ten years at Chartwell which is a long time to research and explore. To an American ear, this might not set off immediate connection since Chartwell is a subject that has flown below the radar concerning World War II. The needed reference point concerns the knowledge that Chartwell was Winston Churchill’s country abode. What makes Chartwell interesting, however, is that it also served as a place where Churchill amassed military intelligence from many sources from well before Hitler came fully into power. Chartwell, then, was where secret meetings with people such as Einstein and China’s political elite took place. It is also where people such as the famed ‘T.E. Lawrence’–better known as Lawrence of Arabia–met Churchill before Lawrence’s untimely, unfortunately fatal, motorcycle wreck.
What the narrative endeavors to undertake is how and in what way Chartwell influenced the development of Churchill’s political career. A strong metaphor can be made to Chartwell being Churchill’s Garden of Eden. This metaphor is helped, perhaps in not a small way, by key political players in Churchill’s retinue being named Eden.
Here, at Chartwell, Churchill banged out various writing pieces and crafted speeches designed to warn the world of the approaching Nazi menace to which it turned, until the situation became dire, a deaf ear. Principally, Churchill wished to ready the Air Force so that Britain could counter any attack that Germany might be inclined to send. An early partner in this endeavor, who is an interesting study all on his own, is a person by the name of Ralph Wigram who acts as a key informant to Churchill on Germany’s rearmament. It may be the Wigram was a pivotal piece that was necessary so that Churchill could forge his own convictions about the coming world conflagration. If nothing else, he was an important informant that helped shape Churchill’s opinion in 1934.
Here at Chartwell also was where Churchill banqueted with especially formal meals and recipes for as long as his budget could afford to do so. Eventually, however, pecuniary necessity begins to settle on the estate, and Churchill must wrestle with what to do with the place that he so dearly loves. The decision he makes proves to be fodder for a later scandal.
Carter includes details that are not easily discovered concerning the early parts of World War II, or to borrow a famous Watergate phrase, “What Churchill knew and when he knew it.” It paints a picture of Joseph Kennedy and an America that is not especially fond of Britain, nor desirous of entering into any further conflicts. Likewise, it shows a Britain that wishes to close its eyes to the menace soon to be at its borders and wishes instead to avoid any direct action that might lead to more conflict. Chamberlain, famously, wanted ‘peace at any price’ and this appeasement, of course, was desired from having witnessed the horrors of the First World War. Carter also tells the narratives of deposed French Prime Ministers, ousted Nazi political opponents of former high station, and German military informants who cannot believe that Hitler is doing in Germany what he appears to be doing.
Oh yes, and there there is the all-encompassing story of Churchill’s ambition to politically ‘get back on top’. His reasoning for desiring these political positions are ultimately good in context, but it is clear he wants to be back where he was–somewhere in Admiralty. His course would take him to the office of Prime Minister. Carter’s exploration of how Chartwell contributes to this trajectory is novel.
A piece of criticism of Carter’s work, however, might be that the ending is unexpectedly abrupt. One feels, somehow, like there is more to be said about Chartwell at the end of the war. This is especially so since we learn all about Churchill’s family and what they do there and we do not get to hear what happens once the dark cloud of war passes from Chartwell’s perspective. What we do get, which is quite nice, is a long timeline of events after what feels like an abrupt ending–and a detailed number of notes and sources. Perhaps Carter plans a sequel to this work some day. If so, the ending makes sense. Churchill himself, assuredly, would approve.
978-0812974492
Review note: One of the staff members in the earlier days of Facebook had Hillenbrand as a friend. This book was not out at this point. Seabiscuit, however, was. –Booklight staff
Unbroken is a work that makes a person question the reasons why and how the universe works as it does. Perhaps the reason why this question is put so forcefully forward concerns the sheer amount of suffering present pressed between the front and back book covers on these pages.
Louie Zamperini begins life as a thief, although not an especially malicious one–more the kind that will steal a pie off a window sill and run–and by the way that running is going to prove to be rapid. Eventually, his theiving ways are turned into a possible useful focus in becoming a race runner as inspired by his brother. Zamperini runs all the way into the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he competes in the 5,000 meter distance race during a sweltering heatwave. To add a certain Ben Hur flavoring, some of the other runners attempt to remove him from the race by kicking him with their cleats. This bloodies him up, but he finishes eighth and manages to run the last lap in 56 seconds despite all the injuries he has received. This accomplishment, which was unheard of, attracts the attention of one certain Adolf Hitler who wishes to shake his hand for the feat.
Zamperini goes off to college, and there sets another racing 15 year record for the time it took him to run a mile. War breaks out, and this is actually where the story of Unbroken really begins and where Hillenbrand starts to hone her pen on the tale to follow.
Zamperini is placed in the position of being a B-24 bombardier. His job is to make sure the bombs hit their target. He does this job well and succeeds in undertaking many combat missions where his luck is put to the maximum test. He still makes it home. It is only when he and his crew are asked to go on a rescue mission that his plane goes down killing everyone but three of his crew that his luck runs out–at least in terms of the mechanical integrity of the plane. Thing is, the plane was not even shot at. It just stopped working.
From this point forward, everything that can go wrong and should kill a person happens. Forty-seven days are spent in a raft with sharks circling. Water runs out. The heat beats down oppressively. People hallucinate. Strafing by enemy zeros occurs. Then, the raft makes landfall, only to be welcomed by Japanese forces which are occupying the region. The raft, and its concomitant hardships, it turns out, are a vacation compared to what follows.
While the interview of Hillenbrand that occurs in the back of the work focuses on the theme of “forgiving the unforgivable”, it seems the bigger question is how Zamperini “endures the unendurable.” The psychological torture and physical stresses stagger the imagination. The Japanese have no intention of following any Geneva Convention war protocol, and are out to kill all prisoners one way or the other. Some are more sadistic than others. One specific guard who is called “The Bird” by the prisoners, is especially cruel and delights in inventing new tortures for the prisoners but especially, it seems, Zamperini. At each moment in this book when relief looks imminent, something much, much worse happens instead. This momentum continues for what seems like a small eternity and by the time the reader is done they feel as if they have gone through some kind of abuse simply by knowing such a chain of events occurred.
Nonetheless, Zamperini must find both the will to survive and the answer to whatever it is that faith means to him if he wishes to continue to move forward. How this story concludes and how the answers are found is incredible. If Anne Frank is the Jewish voice of World War II and its hardships, then Zamperini ought to at least be the voice of American POW’s who were taken captive by the Japanese–if not POW’s as a whole. You owe it to yourself to read this one if you want to be informed on how how the other prisoner’s of war fared and what that meant in the Asian theaters of World War II.
978-0241113370
Review note: A sister project, Nearly Sacred, a podcast just released an episode on Q and military intelligence. In a happy coincidence, this book review came in at almost the same time. –Booklight staff
John Pertwee, better known as the Third Doctor from the TV show Doctor Who, must have had his life setting set on legendary. Of course, since Pertwee is an actor, he might be acting having written this autobiography. Since he was also involved in military intelligence, it might also all be some part of an OP by Britain. Then, there is the possibility he is telling the unabashed truth, and it all sounds stranger than fiction. Probably, this analysis would delight him in any case.
The narrative format begins by discussing Pertwee’s early life and the decisions of his father who was working toward being a playwright. His mother and father split quickly, and Pertwee lives with his father with little to no knowledge about his mother. Later in the book, we understand why this is so. While living with his father, Pertwee moves through boarding schools and different estates–some of which are in France. He cuts his teeth watching World War I aces fly planes–sometimes to disastrous results. While in boarding school, he does not uphold the decorum expected of him as a student, and most often gets into trouble for playing pranks. He learns much about the opposite sex from an early age. This part of the book, in the current era, is unabashedly honest, but also would not be looked upon fondly. Indeed, Pertwee sounds much like James Bond if James Bond had a childhood. Of course, since Pertwee was hanging out with the writer of James Bond and worked in his later life in military intelligence for Britain, we begin to understand why this might be so.
After Pertwee narrowly escapes childhood, he starts a career in acting. This career has many memorable moments for him, but is interrupted by World War II. Pertwee joins the Navy. While in the Navy, Pertwee narrowly avoids getting blown up on the HMS Hood. It seems rather like destiny stepped in and pulled him away from the ship before its doomed encounter. Pertwee experiences this several times throughout the book. He has some premonitions and obeys them and discovers, for instance, that his idea to not leave a certain area during a pause in a bombing aerial raid results in his still being alive and not blown to bits.
There are many admissions of romantic conquests in the book. Pertwee was never short, it seems, on admirers or finding them. Certain low points are present in morale and character most apparently while in the Navy, as the reader might suspect. Pertwee is not usually the perpetrator in these tales, but one learns much about sexual attitudes throughout the book in England and the Navy in the early 20th century in particular. The premise to be understood is that it was “rough”.
Usually, one reads about Pertwee’s time in naval intelligence from an interview he gave two younger people in 1994 for a newspaper. However, the admission is present in the book, and Pertwee describes a kind of code that is used for communication during war time that is known within the military branches. Evidently, writing a letter to a loved one or mother and then using certain kinds of words was a way to encode information. This kind of coding has often been referred to as “Q code”. Therefore, it would seem Pertwee is indicating a familiarity with Q clearance. He speaks of several kinds of gadgets–like a pipe that shoots bullets or buttons that contain compasses–that he had to train others how to use. He was, in his early acting career, in plays with Winston Churchill’s daughter, and it is said that during his time in intelligence he spent time with Churchill and was directly answerable to him. Actors were perfect spies since they often moved around and people suspected them less since they were doing what their job required.
What this book does not discuss much is Pertwee’s time on Doctor Who. Indeed, there is another book that focuses on those years. Perhaps that will be a follow-up post here, at thebooklight! It is, nonetheless, an incredible account of the life and times of John Pertwee. How much of it is entertainment, or reality, or him acting is probably exactly why he was a spy. It’s hard to tell. Of course, to make up the material in here one would need to be a creative genius. Pertwee is clever, but some things are so strange that it can only be reality creating the narrative.