TIME AND TIDE by Marie Keates @marie_keates #TuesdayBookBlog

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link) 
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I'd read a couple of others by this author.

In a Nutshell: Dunkirk 1940, from several points of view

The time and place of this book, about the evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk in early summer 1940, is so well rounded out, as the author alternates between the story of the Hariph, Bert and Denis, who set out to take part in the rescue effort, of George and his friends in the Service Corps, trapped in the middle of enemy lines - and, lastly, the wives at home in Southampton, England.  The family connections and histories are quite complicated, with many names to remember, but they began to slot into my head after the first couple of chapters - proof that they became three dimensional!  The characters come from the author's previous series, so I did recognise some of them.

Marie Keates is something of an authority on the history of Southampton, and I liked reading such interesting detail as the delivery men at home using horses rather than vans because, unlike in the First World War, the horses had not been requisitioned, and fuel was hard to come by.  I was struck by the people's innocence in this earlier age, despite all they had been through, and also by the fact that their values were focused on the health and safety of others as well as themselves; a less self-centred era.

Time & Tide is a story about the bonds of friendship as well as family, about self-sacrifice, courage and faith.  Now and again I felt opportunities to create atmosphere and tension were missed, though this is a wartime family drama about the people of Southampton, inspired by many of the author's own relatives, rather than a dark action adventure; as such, I'm sure it will hit the mark for many readers.

THE DRAU RIVER FLOWS TO SIBERIA: The Victims of Victory by Marina Osipova

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: The story of two people who survived Stalin's Siberian gulags, and the fate of the Cossacks under the care of the Allies in WWII.

I feel quite exhausted having just finished this book, a lengthy novel in which I was engrossed throughout.  It centres around what happened to anti-Soviet Russian nationals at the end of WWII - mostly the Cossacks of Ukraine and other 'enemies' of the Allies - at the hands of the victors: the British and Americans as well as Stalin's Red Army, who also assured Germans that they would remain in the hands of the Western Powers.  All in the name of 'repatriation'. 

Anna and Zakhary, finally set free from incarceration under the most brutal of regimes, are strangers who meet by chance on an isolated peninsula of the Ob River, in 1955.  While waiting many hours for a boat, they tell each other their stories, immediately taking the reader back to the end of the war and the unforeseen dangers that lay along the paths they were about to walk.  

Zakhary was a German national whose Cossack father had taken his family to live in Germany.  Anna found herself separated from her family when the Wehrmacht occupied her town, and was offered the chance to work in Germany; sadly, she believed lies about what a good move this would be.  At the end of the war, though, she finds that nothing she experienced in the last few years has prepared her for what is to come.

The slippery hand of fate takes both of them to the Siberian Gulags; although this is fiction, you cannot help but be aware, throughout, that everything Anna and Zakhary went through was experienced by hundreds of thousands, many of whom would never see freedom again.

This isn't just about the evils of Communism, or of war, but man's inhumanity to man.  My only (tiny!) complaint is the occasional use of American English.  Words like 'normalcy' 'cookies' and 'fall' (rather than autumn) never sit right with me when the book is about European or Eurasian people.  But I doubt anyone will mind that as much as I do, if at all, and this really is a terrific book.

Here is an article about the Lienz massacre in Austria, in which the Cossacks were betrayed by the British army, and another one HERE.  Below, a short video.

THE BOY FROM BLOCK 66 by Limor Regev

 4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Amazon browse

In a Nutshell: account of Moshe Kessler, a Hungarian Jew, in the Nazi death camps and afterwards ; it is written in the first person, as told to the author.

While reading this I wondered why so many of us choose to read survivor accounts of the Holocaust.  I think I do so because the 'how' fascinates me so much - how ordinary people would turn a blind eye to, or even join in with, the ill treatment of another group.  How a few psychopaths could persuade thousands of soldiers to commit such atrocities.  I've recently read most of a book on this subject, Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, if you're interested in this aspect.  Do all people have this potential evil within, a fire waiting to be lit?  I don't believe so, but...

Moshe Kessler had an idyllic childhood within his large, extended family.  Many, many have asked, over the years, why the Jews allowed their persecution to take place, seemingly without protest.  Moshe answers this question in detail; here is an excerpt I marked:

'You must understand that our future in those days was completely uncertain, for better or worse.  Our daily routine had gradually changed in the past two years, with each new directive or restriction by the Hungarian regime.  We thought this was just another period of temporary worsening of conditions, and we would soon return to our homes.  Information about what to expect next was concealed in a way that dispelled our suspicions.'

Moshe was only 13 when he and his family were taken to Auschwitz.  He escaped the gas chamber on the advice of a veteran prisoner, who told him to join the 'other queue' and say he was 16.  This nameless prisoner was one of many who saved his life over the terrible fifteen months he survived there; another was Antonin Kalina, a true angel who was active in Buchenwald camp underground (Moshe was driven on a 'death march' from one camp to another), who established Block 66 for the children, and initiated many procedures to keep them alive.

The author (a friend of the family in later years), writing as Moshe, describes much about the emotional repercussions, and the slow easing back into 'normal' life after the Americans liberated Buchenwald; many years passed before he found any sort of contentment.  

My only complaint about the book is the bad editing; there are occasional grammar errors, and duplication of facts, as though the process was a bit on the sketchy side.  This was only mildly irritating; it's definitely worth reading.

LUCKY JACK by S Bavey @SueBavey

 4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: via Rosie Amber's Review Blog

In a Nutshell: A biography of Sue Bavey's paternal grandfather, though written in Jack Roger's first person voice.  He and Sue were very close.

This is such a great project to have undertaken; Sue says she wanted to get Jack's story down for her own children, and generations to come.  

It's a charming book, starting with London life in the late Victorian times - Jack was one of those rare people who have actually lived in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.  At one time he was officially Britain's oldest man, and at the age of 103 co-wrote a column for the Lincolnshire Echo for a while.

Although this memoir covers some tragic times, such as the two world wars, it is mostly kept to a lighthearted vein, though I have to say that the section I found most memorable was his time in a German POW camp during WW1, when he and his friends suffered hardship we cannot even imagine in these times.  I also found the chapter about living in the flight path of Heathrow Airport oddly poignant; he talks of a time before, when seeing planes take off was a novelty for him and his wife, only to find, later, that living in its immediate vicinity was no joke.  I felt sad to think of the pub he loved which, of course, disappeared under all that concrete.

An interesting surprise for me was that Jack opened his surgical boot making business in 1920, at a premises in Goldhawk Road, Stamford Brook, which is in Hammersmith, North London.  My mother was born in 1926 and, until the late 1940s, lived in her family home in Vaughan Avenue, Stamford Brook - which happens to be just off Goldhawk Road - I looked up a street map of the area.  So Mum must have known of Jack's shop; she may have even met him!  Small world indeed.

(Note 18 Jan:  She did, and more!  Please see HERE for the stuff I found out.)

The secret of Jack's long, healthy and lucky life seems, from what I read in this book, to have been his positive attitude and adaptability, taking the enormous changes in the 106 years of his life in his stride.  We can only imagine what it must be like to have seen so, so many changes in the world.  I bow with respect.

THE GATHERING STORM by Alan Jones

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I saw that Lorraine of @ReviewCafe blog had, on Twitter, named the whole trilogy as the best books she read in 2021 - that was enough for me!

In a Nutshell:  Germany, from 1933 to the beginning of WW2, from the POV of a German general and his Jewish staff.

This is a long book, and quite an achievement; it's the most detailed fictional account of this period that I've ever read. It is set in the city of Kiel in northern Germany, and shows how the persecution of the Jews developed so gradually over the years, how Hitler was perceived when he first came to power, and the way in which the idea of war sneaked up on everyone.  It certainly increased my knowledge about the period, generally.

I very quickly became invested in the main characters - General Erich Kästner and his family, and Yosef and Miriam Nussbaum, his driver/handyman and cook/housekeeper.  Also Ruth Nussbaum, Yosef and Miriam's daughter, from whom the account derives.  Some characters and places are real, some are fictional; there is an explanation at the beginning of the book. All the main characters were clearly defined, so I was interested in their stories.

One aspect I liked very much was how some chapter topics were heralded by memos between official personnel - mostly to General Kästner from his superiors and colleagues - informing each other of the Führer's plans, or by articles in either the Kiel morning paper or the underground publication distributed by Jews.  Later, information is given to the reader in this way via letters between Miriam and her friend Esther, who escaped to Palestine, and between their children.  These short, sharp shocks (particularly via the memos and the Morgenpost) built suspense so well, and gave a nice variation to the text.

More than any other book I've read on the subject, The Gathering Storm illustrates how the restrictions placed on the Jews were introduced so slowly that they became almost resigned to such persecution.  Similarly, we see how the ordinary people were manipulated to see the Jew as the cause of all the country's problems, a subspecies, dirty, untrustworthy, etc.  In effect, there was little difference between those who joined in wholeheartedly with the persecution and those who turned a blind eye and went along with it for the sake of their own safety.  Most of all, though, this book answered the question asked by so many: why did most of the Jews just accept what was happening?

I saw the reason for their perceived passive reaction as not only fear and lack of options, but also the fact that they didn't know how bad it was going to get.  Had they been told that within the next decade six million of them would be murdered in concentration camps, the entire country might have reacted differently to those first changes in the law.  Each time there was a lull in the violence and trouble, the characters hoped that everything had 'settled down now'.  They clung onto little glimmers of hope, onto rumours that Hitler would be ousted; all they had to do was wait.  The characters would assure each other that it couldn't get much worse.

'It is hard to believe that something of that nature can happen in our country in the twenty-first century' - Yosef, about the murder of a Jewish doctor in 1933.  

'Once the country is stabilised we'll return to normal, surely?' - Mrs Kästner, justifying her vote for Hitler, when her husband criticised one of the new laws giving him absolute power.

The population was kept in the dark, never knowing what was true and what was rumour, gradually being desensitised to the cruelty, believing that the Jews should not 'expect to be able to move around with impunity, endangering the German people'.  Soon civilians who had swallowed all the propaganda were doing much of the job for Hitler and his men, via discrimination, violence, damage of property, etc.

I did like this book a lot, and will definitely read the next one in the trilogy, but I felt it could have been cut down by at least a quarter.  I was in awe of the extensive research, but at times I felt that it was perhaps a little over-researched.  There are long, detailed chapters about sailing and boat races in which the Kästners were involved that seemed to be there only to show that the author knows about sailing and boat races.  The 1936 Olympics seemed to go on forever, important though it was because of the attitudes towards Jesse Owens.  The other aspect I was not so keen on was that much of the story is told in dialogue - it's used to convey information, incidents often being reported in conversation after the event, rather than the scene being shown, which made for less impact.  For instance, Yosef's experience of a riot outside the British Consulate in which many Jewish citizens were assaulted by the Nazis was dealt with in one paragraph; it could have been an excellent scene.  I actually found the memos and news items at the start of the chapters more foreboding and atmospheric than the rest of the book.

It's a novel that I'd recommend if you're interested in the subject matter, but I did feel it needed an editor with the sort of eye that prunes superfluous detail; not all research needs to make it into the book, and the proofreader did not pick up on the fairly frequent misuse of the word 'I' when it should have been 'me' (a minor  bugbear of mine!).  Looking at the other reviews, though, it seems that not being completely blown away by The Gathering Storm puts me in a minority of one (!!), so you may want to disregard my thoughts.  It is, as I said, jolly good on the whole - I've already bought the next book and am looking forward to seeing what happens next for the Kästners and the Nussbaums.

TEARS OF AMBER by Sofia Segovia

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I read about it on book blogger Cathy Ryan's post Stand Out Reads of 2021

In a Nutshell: WWII evacuation of the East Prussians

I read this over two days, totally glued to it.  It's fiction based on a real life story as told to the author, based on two families in rural East Prussia and what becomes of them as the Germans begin to lose the war.  The families are not connected; we read their stories alternately.

The main characters are Ilse Hahlbrock, who is about six at the beginning of the story, and Arno Schipper, a year or so older.  When their parents hear that the Russians are advancing from the East, their parents make the decision to flee.  There follows a journey so treacherous it is no surprise that not everyone makes it, as they become starving refugees dependent on the charity of strangers, their wits and luck for survival over a long, perilously cold winter.  Even after the war is over their trials are not, as the families are split up, never knowing if those they love are alive or dead, or if they will ever see them again.

Now and again the narrative moves from Ilse and Arno to their mothers, Wanda and Ethel, or to their fathers, who are both in constant danger of being conscripted, once the German army becomes desperate for more bodies.  Also, Janusz, a Polish prisoner who was assigned to work on the Hahlbrocks' farm, and whose story is particularly emotive.  Knowing that he is in danger from the Nazis, they take him with them.  Even years after the end of the war, both families endure hardship and danger that we cannot imagine.

Wikipedia tells me that 'The German population of the province was largely evacuated during the war or expelled shortly afterwards in the expulsion of Germans after World War II. An estimated 300,000 died either in war time bombing raids, in the battles to defend the province, or through mistreatment by the Red Army or from hunger, cold and disease', but this book shows what these few words actually meant for these ordinary people who just wanted to live out their lives on their farms, but were driven out of their homes with only what they could carry. 

Pictures are all of the evacuation from East Prussia in 1945

In the beginning of the book, I was most interested to see how the children were groomed at school to believe that Hitler was something close to a god, that Jews and Poles were subhumans and deserved ill treatment, or worse.  But not just the children - many of the adults, too, were brainwashed by the propaganda.  For instance, some people on whose charity the Hahlbrocks were forced to depend would not allow Janusz in their house.  Also, all they heard on the news was endless reports of impending German victory, though some of the people tuned into, for instance, the British radio stations, where they discovered that the Führer was not as invincible as they had been led to believe.  At the beginning of the story, we see how the people truly believed that in the glorious future that awaited all Germans.  

(Incidentally, I read that in 1920 the people of East Prussia voted on whether to become part of the Second Polish Republic or remain under the command of Weimar Germany; 97.89% voted to remain).

This is an incredible story, written so compellingly.  The only miniscule complaint I have is that I wish it hadn't been translated using American words like 'cookies', 'candy', 'movies', etc, as the people are European.  But that hardly matters - can't recommend this book too highly, and I definitely want to read more about it.

A Wild Picture Of Destruction – The Creation Of Kaliningrad: Expulsion Of All Things German

THE OCCUPATION by Deborah Swift @swiftstory

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I read all of Deborah Swift books as soon as I can after they're released!

In a Nutshell: A story about the World War II occupation of Jersey, and a German soldier with conflicted loyalties...

I knew little about the occupation of the Channel Islands before I read this book, and it certainly opened my eyes; I had no idea the islanders suffered such hardship.  Deborah Swift's books are always meticulously researched without that research ever being apparent (such an art!), so I know that the novel is an accurate depiction of the time.

The story centres around Céline and Fred, who own a bakery on the island.  Fred is German, and is conscripted into the German army.  Both points of view are written in the first person, which was absolutely the right choice, and Céline's story also involves her friend Rachel, who is Jewish.  When I first started reading, I thought it was going to be one of those 'cosy' sort of wartime books (the type that have covers showing smiling landgirls and tick all 1940s nostalgia boxes) but I couldn't have been more wrong; the picture of how mild and safe Jersey seems at first is there to provide the constrast with how precarious life becomes.

This novel is such an 'easy read'; the writing flows so well and, considering it's based on some events that actually took place, is unpredictable and certainly a page-turner.  The overall message it puts across is how war changes everyone, and how quickly people can be led into prejudice about their fellow man—and I'm not just talking about the Nazis and the Jews.  I applaud Ms Swift for not providing a neatly tied up, happy ending; the outcome for many of the characters made it a much more powerful story than it might have been had she gone for the safer option; I found that I became more and more engrossed as the story went on.

Reading this gave me new respect for all those who suffered under the Nazis.  I enjoyed it, a lot.  Definitely recommended.

THE BERLIN AFFAIR by David Boyle

3.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie Amber's Review Team, of which I am a member.

This is a novella length story; I wondered if such a plot could be fitted into a novella, and if there would be a lack of detail, but it is well structured and fits nicely into the shorter length.

Xanthe Schneider from Cincinatti arrives in Cambridge as a student, six months before the outbreak of World War Two.  During her childhood, she was endowed with a love of and talent for crosswords by her father, and, in England, during the 'phoney war' of the first eight months following September 3rd, 1939, she gets to know the mysterious Ralph Lancing, a code cracking enthusiast.  Then Ralph disappears, and Xanthe is approached by war officials to take part in the world of British espionage.

One thing I liked about this was the portrayal of the England at the time; it's very well done, but subtly, and it came over, to me, a bit like a black and white film.  I also liked that Boyle has used real life characters, such as Goebbels, and I felt Xanthe's growing fear; the atmosphere of menace certainly worked.  Sometimes I felt the choice of words was a little odd, and I wasn't always sure about the way in which, for instance, a naval commander spoke to Xanthe, a woman he had only just met.

This is a good read for the historical detail in itself, and it is well plotted; an undemanding, enjoyable book with which to curl up for an afternoon.

SECRETS by Judith Barrow @barrow_judith

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com

How I discovered this book: I've read the three books in Judith Barrow's Howarth family saga, so was interested to read this offshoot collection of short stories. **Only 99p**

I read the whole collection this afternoon, and really enjoyed them.  Each story deals with a character who has a secret; the first few are quite short, the longer, more involved ones nearer the end.  I recognised some of the names from the series, but it wouldn't matter if I had or not; they're all terrific stories in their own right.  The best ones are, I think, Alun Thomas and Stan Green's secrets, both of which are heartrending and take place during the First World War; I imagine I will meet these two when I read the prequel to the trilogy, which is out this summer. 

What the characters have in common is their social class, and the book is a great illustration of how some situations caused great trauma for the subject, yet wouldn't matter at all today, or even occur; a boy of fourteen lies about his age and signs up to fight in the war, a girl survives a mother and baby home where the children are taken away for adoption, a battered wife has no choice but to stay with her husband.  The characterisation is spot on, all the way through.

Judith Barrow has done a great job of ending some stories with dangling threads, leaving you dying to know what happens next ~ thus, the outtake short story collection for a series.  It certainly worked for me!  But they stand up perfectly well on their own.   I definitely recommend them for a great couple of hour's reading.

THE 45TH NAIL by Michael and Ian Lahey

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

Reviewed by me as a member of Rosie Amber's Book Review Team

The basics: Bob, a middle-aged French teacher from middle America, receives a strange communication from his long-lost Uncle Jim who he believed to have gone MIA during World War II.  The contents of this communication are sufficient to send Bob off to Italy to find him.

From the blurb I was expecting an adventure type thriller, but the beginning is more like dark comedy, as Bob tells wife Beth untruths about where he is going (the portrayal of Beth was hilarious, I'd like to have read more about her), has his luggage and wallet stolen by a con artist/pickpocket gang as soon as he arrives in Italy, then takes a series of part-time jobs in order to clothe, feed and house himself before he can even think of travelling to Anzio to seek out the mysterious Uncle Jim.  His experience 'winging it' as a sommelier is very funny indeed, and some of the characterisation of the people he meets is first class (I particularly liked Edigio, the hotelier who helps him along the way).

As for the plot itself, I wasn't really convinced by it at first; it seemed to be more of a story about this funny guy who has all sorts of accidental adventures in Italy.  Then, at about twenty per cent, a well plotted twist made it all clear, and the tone changed.

The book shows the legacy left by the war, a love of Italy, the language, archaeology and social culture; I didn't know what some of the dialogue meant and had to do a certain amount of 'winging it' myself, but this wasn't a problem.  The last fifteen per cent of the book provides the terrible truth about Uncle Jim and the 45th nail - I was engrossed, and found it sad and moving.  The end is excellent.

I thought the story rambled a fair bit and gave more detail in many places where a more succinct account/stream of conversation would have had better effect, but the writing itself is great.  If it was trimmed down a bit it would be worthy of at least another half star, as far as I'm concerned.

An unusual book, and a good one.

OCCUPYING LOVE by Marilyn Chapman

3 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

Reviewed by me as a member of Rosie Amber's Book Review Team 
 
Occupying love is a historical romance set in Guernsey during the occupation by the Nazis during the second world war.  Lydia Le Page returns to Guernsey from England on a momentous day: the first bombing on British soil during the war.

Lydia is, thus, trapped on Guernsey and has to put on hold her plans to train as a pharmacist.  Happily reunited with her best friend, Maggie, and having met the mysterious new rector, Martin Martell, life seems bearable even though Lydia feels annoyed by the way some are more accepting of the island's fate than others, particularly Maggie, who is quite taken with the German soldiers.

The fates of Lydia's family take a turn for the worse when Germans decide to occupy not only the island but also their house, forcing them to lodge with friends.  Lydia takes a job that means she gets to know Martin better, though both his activities and his personality remain something of a conundrum to her.  Then another suitor enters the arena... 

I think this is a book for an older readership, as the tone is one of the British pulling together against the enemy, with a fair bit of domestic detail.  The characterisation and dialogue are reminiscent of 1950s films about the war, so it would appeal to readers who enjoy the current popularity of nostalgia orientated books, and/or who live in or have some knowledge of Guernsey.  

The book is well presented, and competently edited.

CHANGING PATTERNS by Judith Barrow

4.5 out of 5 stars

1950s family drama

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

Now, this is what I love to see ~ a sequel that is better than the first!  Ideally, writers should improve on their craft all the time, even if they do so without realising; I've read a few books from series this year and been pleased to find this the case, every time, and particularly so with this novel.

Pattern of Shadows followed the fortunes of the Howarth family in working class northern England during WWII; Changing Patterns takes the story into 1950.  I read this book over a period of about 48 hours and thought about it when I wasn't reading it.  What made it good?  It's easy to read, a bit like watching a soap opera; yes, it's an everyday story of simple folk.  Its main USP, though, is the realism, which made me feel two different things.  Firstly, a comfortable nostalgia; I was not born until 1959, but know that people of my parents' generation see those post war years as something of a golden age.  You know, when people had proper family values and were so grateful just to live in a time of peace that they were more appreciative of seemingly trivial pleasures.  The other side, though, is somewhat darker: the prejudices, particularly amongst the ill educated, and the sense of being in a social straitjacket.  This book portrays both sides so well.  

In the first book I did not warm to the main character, Mary Howarth, but I came to like her much more in this one, along with ex POW, Peter, and Mary's sister, Ellen.  Oh, and the horrors of living with the battleaxe mothers in law!  The book is sometimes very graphic in its realism and made me extremely glad the stork didn't drop me in Ellen's situation; Mrs Booth was quite revolting.  And then there is the gross and despicable George Shuttleworth...
I'd say that if this sort of family drama is your favourite thing to read, you will love this book; it's very well written and is a fine example of the genre.  I shall definitely be reading part 3 when available; it's about the next generation and is set in the 1960s.  I so look forward to Ms Barrow's take on an era I really do remember.

A note to the proofreader: at 66% Ms Barrow has used the word 'scran', which is northern slang word for food.  "Good scran that, our kid,".  Alas, the proofreader/editor has changed it to 'scram'!  This made me laugh, as I am a southerner who has moved to the north east in recent years, and before that I hadn't heard of the word, either.  There - you learn something new every day, indeed!


PATTERN OF SHADOWS by Judith Barrow reviewed HERE

LIVING IN THE SHADOWS by Judith Barrow reviewed HERE