During the Second World War, four Norwegians set sail in a small fishing boat from the Shetlands Islands to the far north of Norway. They’ve been training in Britain to perform acts of sabotage against the Nazis who are occupying their homeland. As they try to make dry land, their arrival comes to the attention of a German gunship and in the ensuing skirmish, only one of their number, Jan Baalsrud, manages to escape. “We Die Alone” is the story of his miraculous and dramatic escape to neutral Sweden which he achieved with the aid of a complex and widespread network of brave and patriotic Norwegians who risked their lives to save one man they had never met before (and some never actually met him at all even though they played important parts in the operation).

David Howarth

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“‘A Dante’s Inferno’ for the MTV generation” – Bono’s verdict on Bill Carter’s “Fools Rush In“. Not much of a recommendation for me; sounds like a load of pompous rubbish. For years my opinion of Bono has swayed from ‘short-arsed rock singer’ to ‘head up his own arse rock singer’ but for one positive interlude somewhere in the middle. This respite (for which Bono no doubt thanks me profusely!) is the subject of “Fools Rush In”.

When American Bill Carter found himself needing some excitement he managed to get himself a place on one of the volunteer aid convoys taking food and medical relief into the besieged town of Sarajevo during the bitter war in the former Yugoslavia.

Bill Carter, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

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Masters and Commanders is a 2008 book by the historian Andrew Roberts about the Western Alliance between the United States and Great Britain at the highest level during World War 2. This is a comprehensive and absorbing study of the decisions that were made, the conferences, the disputes, the arguments over strategy, the friendships, the fractious relationships, and so on. It revolves around the four men who were key in the Anglo-American Alliance against Hitler; Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin Roosevelt, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the head of the British Army, and General George C Marshall, his American counterpart. The interactions between and around these four very different men and the ever changing problems they faced are fascinating to read about. ‘In all they had met seven times,’ writes Roberts of them. ‘And at these hard-fought meetings had hammered out a victorious strategy. There had been some individual defeats and disappointments in battle against the Axis, of course, but no campaign reversals. Above all the timing of the greatest amphibious assault in history had been justified by the only truly unanswerable criterion of warfare: success. Through their rows, standoffs, fist-shaking, charm offensives, hard-fought compromises and occasional tantrums, the Masters and Commanders performed that miracle and won victory in the west.’

Andrew Roberts, World War 2

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I daresay that everyone reading this is familiar with the name Jack the Ripper. For that matter, you are probably aware of the basics of the case – that a serial killer murdered and mutilated prostitutes in the East End of Victorian London, successfully evading the then fledgling police force in what would become known as “the autumn of terror” in 1888. Although this era is associated with the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, his real-life counterparts had their work cut out for them in this case; forensic science was only in its infancy, fingerprinting was a novelty rather than a serious crime-solving tool, and constables found themselves with barely any training and equipped with lanterns that were at best ineffective in the smoggy streets and at worst dangerous to use. In the 120 years since these notorious crimes took place, the mystery of who the Ripper was has never ceased to fascinate people. There are doubtless scores of unknown killers in London’s history, but this case continues to cause speculation because of both the shocking brutality of the crimes and the very fact we know so little about them and the perpetrator.

Jack the Ripper, Patricia Cornwell, true crime

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‘Brought up by parents who were fanatical supporters of Oswald Mosley, Trevor Grundy became the youngest public speaker for the Union Movement, giving a speech in Trafalgar Square at the age of seventeen. Soon after, Trevor began to question his family and their beliefs. He discovered a new moral framework – and the shocking secret that his mother, an anti-Semitic Fascist, was Jewish.’

Memoir Of A Fascist Childhood was first published in 1998 and written by journalist Trevor Grundy. My paperback copy is just over two hundred pages long and the book is very readable and accessible with much humour despite the sometimes disturbing themes. The heart of the book is Grundy’s relationship with his mother but it also serves as an interesting and authentic glimpse into ordinary working class London life in immediate post-war Britain.

British fascism, Oswald Mosley, Trevor Grundy

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In his book “The Snow Tourist”, journalist Charlie English presents a series of separate but related travelogues looking at snow from a number of interesting perspectives. Subtitled “A Search for the World’s Purest, Deepest Snowfall” the book covers a variety of aspects such as how an American enthusiast discovered that no two snowflakes are alike, how Inuits in North America use snow in their everyday lives, and how one Austrian man developed skiing as we know it today.

As well as being a compelling piece of writing in its own right, this book is a touching (but not sentimental) work as English explains how his fascination with snow first began, describing the death of his father, a keen competitive skier, and his subsequent family skiing holidays with his mother and brother.  To assuage his guilt at leaving his own wife and children at home while he researches the severe snowstorms that have affected the eastern seaboard of the United States, English flies this family out to join him in New York, only for that city to grind to a standstill just as they are due to fly home. Charlie’s wife does not share his passion for snow!

Charlie English, snow

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Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth, by Mary S Lovell, is a biography of a powerful female entrepreneur in Tudor times.

Author

Mary S Lovell was an accountant for many years before writing her first book at the age of 40. Biographies she has written include Straight on Till Morning about the aviatrix Beryl Markham, Cast No Shadow about the World War II spy Betty Pack, and the sisters who are The Mitford Girls.

Her next book is due to be a family biography called The Churchills.

Peak District Connections

I love relaxing in the Peak District, and as a result of spending many happy times in this part of the country I have heard a lot about Bess of Hardwick, through visiting property once owned by her, and wanted to find out more.

Chatsworth, Elizabethan, Mary S Lovell, Tudors

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I remember once asking an English teacher of mine what he thought constituted a good book. He replied that it was a book where getting to the end of it was not enough – you wanted to know what happened to the characters beyond the last page, for the rest of their lives. I have always found this explanation to be a simple, yet satisfying one. With so many books you get to the end, put it down, and never think of it ever again; they were entertaining enough, but instantly forgettable. With others, though, you find yourself reaching the end of the story and desperately wanting to know more. “Fatherland”, for me, certainly falls into this second category. It may not be the most accomplished or the most original literature I have ever read, but it had that X factor that compelled me to read on, and to try and work out what happened after the book had finished. I have been left with the story hovering around my mind since I finished reading it; I can’t help but wonder about the futures of the people I have been reading about.
“Fatherland” opens as all good crime thrillers do, with the discovery of a body. In this case, it is of an elderly man who is washed up on the lake shore near one of Berlin’s most exclusive areas,

Nazis, Robert Harris, thriller

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‘Berlin: The Downfall 1945′ was first published in 2002 and written by acclaimed historian Antony Beevor. It tells the grim story of the last months of World War 2 in Europe and the bloody battle for Berlin. My paperback copy is 431 pages long and includes a large number of maps and a useful glossary. It begins at Christmas 1944. Berlin is being bombed by the Americans during the day and by the RAF during the night. The city is being reduced to rubble as the 3 million inhabitants struggle to find enough air raid shelters and realise that Hitler has led the country to ruin. But the thing that scares people most of all is the Red Army. The Soviet Union has 6.7 million soldiers on a front from the Baltic to the Adriatic and thousands of tanks, planes, heavy guns and the terrifying ‘katyusha’ rockets. They are 40 miles from Berlin and the only thing that stands between them and the capital are the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel; foreign SS, Hitler Youth, Luftwaffe pilots organised into army divisions because there are few planes left to fly, what is left of the Wehrmacht and the Volkssturm – Germany’s version of the Home Guard. The surreal and ruthless nature of Germany’s pointless resistance – orchestrated by an increasingly isolated and mad Hitler in a damp bunker – is shatteringly conveyed by Beevor who never forgets the human element to battles and carnage.

1945, Antony Beevor, Berlin, Downfall

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