So, here we go: though I have cheated and included three books!
Non-fiction has to be C.V. Wedgewood 'The Thirty Years War'.
This opened a whole new world to me as a young history enthusiast - I had no idea of the period before, but it triggered a life-long interest - hence the name of this blog!
Fiction: in the 'military history' area, how about (a) 'The General' by C.S. Forester.
A fantastically thought-provoking read, managing to humanise the army leadership in the Great War, while simultaneously skewering it.
But also (b) 'Private Angelo' by Eric Linklater:
Lovely picaresque , darkly comic journey through the Liberation of Italy 1943-45, with serious points to make too - 'in order to liberate your town, we must destroy it'.
OK that's the 'two (three) sentences' , but have to add a little more..
I've also read Forester's 'Death to the French' and 'The Ship' and found them equally fascinating, they are so clear-eyed and realistic about what war is really like, I think. I have a few of his 'Hornblower' books on the backlog pile, though I suspect they may be a more conventional 'adventure hero' yarns.
Eric Linklater is a favourite of mine, once best-selling but now rather overlooked, perhaps because he was sadly not really seen as 'serious literature' . Maybe his mistake was to possess a sense of humour!
He also wrote much non-fiction, including a fair amount of military history/documentary - he even wrote the official account of The Campaign in Italy 1943-1945.
I shall look into those immediately. I've been working my way through the Hornblower books in chronological order of his career. They are OK, and one must give credit to Forester for having invented the genre, but they're not a patch on the Aubrey/Maturin books. Part of the problem is that Hornblower himself is difficult to identify with; he is basically a bit of an arse.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens I found half a dozen 'Hornblowers' on a charity bookstall for 50p each, so I am going to give them a try, will see what I think of him! I think you might be particularly interested in 'The General', well worth a read.
DeleteGreat to see your choices. I always recall reading the TYW book in my teens and being fascinated by the Holy Roman Emperor bathing with his hat on, in a river if I recall correctly. My father was a big Forester fan and had all his books in hardback. Did the bbc adapt Private Angelo for tv some time ago?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea, Alan! Funny, I thought there had been a TV of Private Angelo, but I think I was mixing him up with 'Private Schulz' which is quite different, I think! But there is a 1949 film of Angelo starring Peter Ustinov, which I would love to see!
DeleteWhat do the history books tell us of the involvement of the Duchy of Tradgardland in the Thirty Years War?
Not read this one but it may be of interest The author Eric Linklater was part of the British garrison of the Faeroe Islands in WW2 and his 1956 novel The Dark of Summer was set in the Faroe Islands during the war years. Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_occupation_of_the_Faroe_Islands
ReplyDeleteThanks for the hint! I have read 'The Northern Garrisons' which he wrote in 1941 and touches on his time in the Faroes, I suspect the novel may draw on that experience. He had an interesting life!
ReplyDeleteI rather enjoy Hornblower, reminds me of my days as a young naval officer except the bits about competency and work effort. I did at least have a strong sense of duty while being shy so that sort of resonates as does the feeling of being at sea.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy the Aubrey/Maturin books, especially when they're at sea but I'm afraid I wasn't much of a rake or eager for promotion either so even harder to identify with but good yarns,
Thank you, Ross. Forester writes so believeably about military/naval matters, though it seems he failed the medical for service himslef - too frail! That's what being a good writer is all about, I guess. I think you might be interested in 'The Ship' , if you haven't already read it.
ReplyDeleteoops forgot to say 'The Ship' was written after his spending some time on a real Royal Navy warship, HMS Penelope, during WW2.
DeleteInteresting choices Dave. Of course you leant me the General a year or two ago and I fully agree with your view of it. Forester manages a damning indictment of a worldview whose lack of intelligence and imagination had such dreadful consequences, yet he does it without ever having to resort to either caricature or unkindness. I also think Wedgwood was terrific, both on the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure what my own non-fiction choices would be, there have been so many! Possibly R. F. Delderfield's Retreat from Moscow. I was already a Napoleonic enthusiast when I read it but I had never before read an account of any campaign that managed to impress upon me both the horror and the heroism to that extent. As I rarely read any historical fiction growing up (being I think slightly autistic I always regarded historical fiction as faintly scandalous in that the writer had to be making a lot of his story up, which just wouldn't do for me in a historical context!) so I think perhaps some of the Henty stories or Leon Garfield, whose stories I enjoyed as a teenager. I also loved Those About to Die by Daniel P Mannix but that was largely I think because it was pretty racy reading matter for a 12-year old!
I will have to check out the Linklater. I remember I used to be very fond of Guareschi's Don Camillo stories which were set slightly after the war but vividly portrayed some of the frictions that the war had created or exacerbated.
Thanks Dave! I might have suspected you would choose 'War and Peace'...? I think I have slight reservations about historical fiction too, I might argue that my choices were both written pretty much as contemporary fiction - or within a few years at least! One might wonder how Wellington got any battles won at all, with the constant interruptions from all those lone maverick riflemen, hussars etc just back from French lines and pestering him with some vital intelligence..
DeleteI do have a couple of GA Henty on the book pile, one is set in the 30YW, which is quite unusual. It uses the particiation of many Scots as its 'way in' to a conflict that must have been unfamiliar to many.
I liked Don Camillo on the radio and have read a bit too, yes I think 'Angelo' has maybe something of that world.
I watched the old War and Peace TV series if that counts! Presumably when it was repeated, as I see that it originally aired when I was 8...
Deleteoh that looks fun - Anthony Hopkins as Pierre and Henry Davenport from 'Drop the Dead Donkey' as Boney!
DeleteDavid may I add Brown on Resolution to your list of Forrester's to read. Another is Alistair Macleans HMS Ulysses. I have my late father's copy which he thought was as good as any book on the Royal Navy's involvement in the Russian convoys. Which coming form a man who did several runs to Murmansk on an escort carrier is as good a recommendation as any.
ReplyDeleteinteresting, thanks! I will look out fot the Forester book, he has impressed me. Also need to get to 'The Gun' sometime..
DeleteThat's interesting to hear Elenderil. My own dad served on an escort carrier on the Arctic convoys too so I will definitely look that book up.
DeleteLiverpoolDave and Elenderil, do you need to compare notes on exactly which escort carriers your repsective fathers were on? You never know...
DeleteI don't have those details I'm afraid. I guess like most kids of dads who served in WWII I failed while I had the chance to get a whole load of stories and details that have consequently died with him. I know from what he did say that he experienced some pretty awful things on the Arctic convoys, there was none of the humour in those stories that there was to be found in so many of his others. Perhaps one of my siblings will know.
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