When the Gamekeeper broke his leg back-along, and was eventually whisked off to the operating theatre for some running repairs requiring the contents of the Screwfix catalogue, I nipped into Plymouth for a book browse...as you do whilst under duress. I chose a couple of what I would call Easy Readers, which is not to demean the quality, but I reckoned I needed page turners, and one of them was Munich, the other was Force of Nature by Jane Harper. As it happens, what followed, in terms of support, keeping company (we did a lot of summer bird watching, happy days) and six x dog walking x twice a day, didn't leave much time for reading, so I have only just read Robert Harris's book.
I was an early adopter of Robert Harris, reading Fatherland on publication back in 1992 (how long ago?? Only twenty-seven years) and swooping on Enigma and Archangel in 1995 and 1998. I was back on full time case-load health visiting, work and family meant limited reading time, but I remember all three as being excellent reads that did the rounds of the community nursing office, so can recommend them if Robert Harris is new to you.
Then everything went Roman in Harris-World and I lapsed... and you are all now going to tell me to read them I just know it.. Pompeii, Imperium, Lustrum, Dictator anyone...
I caught up last year with the audio version of Conclave a terrific listen, about the choosing of a new Pope, and which I see is the Number One Best Seller in the 'Catholic Popes' category on You Know Where...
'They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.'
and goodness me did they,
But, though I still have a few gaps, I'm now up to the minute with Robert Harris and Munich.
I relish a fiction read that takes a known historical event and giving an imaginative but entirely plausible outing for what might have been happening behind the scenes. I enjoyed Every Man for Himself recently, Beryl Bainbridge's fictional insights on the sinking of the Titanic, and in the case of Munich, Neville Chamberlain's negotiations with Hitler in September 1938. Two former friends, old university acquaintances, Legat and Hartmann are supposedly batting for opposite teams in their respective diplomatic entourages, except one of them knows much more than he should, and the consequences of sharing that information could change the course of history.
Meanwhile Neville Chamberlain is portrayed in a certain sympathetic light too, which I don't think has generally been the case (certainly not in the recent film Darkest Hour), though historians out there please correct me if I'm wrong. It's at moments like this (among many) when I miss being able to nip into the Tinker and ask my primary source for his considered opinion.
A Prime Minister stuck between a rock and a hard place...
Neville Chamberlain doing his level best to avoid the carnage of another conflagration, though sadly it seems he misread Hitler's appetite for exactly that, whilst failing to see that the Fuhrer wasn't a man of his word either.
There is much tension and intrigue until a quietly triumphant and trusting Chamberlain returns, waving what proved to be a meaningless piece of paper with the famous words...
"Peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”
Czechoslovakia has been sold down the river and Hitler has plans for Europe, so we all know what the next sentence might be if there was another chapter in the book,
Churchill's legendary riposte...
"You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”
It seems harsh now that I have a different perspective on Chamberlain, but that's politics for you, little room for sympathy.
Along the way plenty of intrigue and tension and I particularly liked the insights (fictional or otherwise) into Mrs Chamberlain, clearly a source of great support to her husband. So a book that started its life here on the scribbles as part of the regular Reading Gallimaufry round-up of recent good reads, and ended up demanding a post of its own.
If you have read Munich, or Conclave or any of the others mentioned I would love to know your thoughts...
And there's the Roman trilogy...should I go there when I am currently holed up in Greece with The Iliad . Lordy lordy, you did warn me, the killing and many ways of... entrails all over the place...
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