Tag: Reviews

My Week in Books – 24th April 2022

whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Capsarius by Simon Turney as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – I shared my review of Fortune by Amanda Smyth, one of the four books on the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize 2022.  

Wednesday – A busy day for blog tours with reviews of Mr Bunting at War by Robert Greenwood and The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer. WWW Wednesday is my weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I went Down The TBR Hole again in an attempt to prune my To-Read shelf on Goodreads of books I no longer want to read.

Friday – I shared my review of another in the Imperial War Museum’s Wartime Classics series, Mailed Fist by John Foley. 

Saturday – Indulging my other love – gardening – I took part in the #SixonSaturday meme with a few highlights from my horticultural week.

New arrivals

The Murder RuleThe Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan (eARC, Harper Collins via NetGalley)

First Rule: Make them like you.
Second Rule: Make them need you.
Third Rule: Make them pay.

They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.

They think I’m working hard to impress them.

They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row.

They’re wrong. I’m going to bury him.

Only May CoverOnly May by Carol Lovekin (eARC, Honno)

Listen. The bee walks across my finger, slow as anything and I can see through the gauzy wing, to the detail of my skin. You aren’t looking in the right place.  If you look her in the eye and tell a lie, May Harper will see it. And if she doesn’t see it, the bees will hum it in her ear. 

Her kind mother and her free-spirited aunt have learned to choose their words with care. Her beloved invalid father lives in a world of his own, lost in another time, the war he cannot forget. 

On May’s seventeenth birthday, a casual evasion from her employer hints at a secret hiding at the heart of the family. Determined to discover the truth, May starts listening at doors… She begins watching the faces of the people she loves best in all the world, those she suspects are hiding the biggest lie of all.

The White Girl CoverThe White Girl by Tony Birch (eARC, Harper Collins)

Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves.

In The White Girl, Miles-Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families.

Finally, I received four of this year’s Quick Reads courtesy of The Reading Agency for World Book Night which took place yesterday.

World Book Night Quick Reads

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson 
  • Book Review: The Birdcage by Eve Chase 
  • Book Review: Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner 

#BlogTour #BookReview Mailed Fist by John Foley @RandomTTours

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

thumbnail_mailed fistWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Mailed Fist by John Foley. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to the Imperial War Museum for my advance review copy.

Mailed_Fist_CoverAbout the Book

In April 1943, newly commissioned John Foley is posted to command Five Troop and their trusty Churchill tanks Avenger, Alert, and Angler – thus begins his initiation into the Royal Armoured Corps. Covering the trials of training, embarkation to France and battle experience through Normandy, the Netherlands, the Ardennes campaign and into Germany, Foley’s intimate and detailed account follows the fate of this group of men in the latter stages of the Second World War.

‘If this book can be said to be a history of anything, it is a history of Five Troop. Not of the squadron, or of the regiment. If anybody wants to know what happened in other troops, or in other squadrons, it’s all recorded painstakingly in the War Diaries and lodged in a Records Office somewhere.’

Format: Paperback (176 pages)    Publisher: Imperial War Museum
Publication date: 21st April 2022 Genre: Modern Classics

Find Mailed Fist on Goodreads

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My Review

Mailed Fist is the latest in the Imperial War Museum’s excellent Wartime Classics series comprising new editions of books from the Second World War. All the books in the series have an introduction putting the work into its historical context.

Mailed Fist is a fictionalised memoir closely based on the author’s own experience as a troop commander from April 1943 until the end of the Second World War.  The author gives us a ‘fly on the wall’ insight into what it was like to command a troop of three Churchill tanks, as well as what it was like for the five-man crews who operated them in cramped, dirty and very basic living conditions.

There’s a lot of humour in the book such as Foley and his fellow officers’ attempts to scupper the daily orderly report they’re required to complete, his attempts at doing his own laundry and how the ‘Love Affairs of Trooper Cooper’ lighten the task of censoring his troop’s letters home.

Periods of inactivity are punctuated by hours of intense fighting, attempting to destroy German artillery, support infantry attacks or take up defensive positions in towns vacated by the retreating enemy. When it comes to the serious business of battle, based on firepower alone the Churchill tanks are no match for the German Tiger tanks but sometimes ingenuity can overcome seemingly impossible odds. Often Five Troop are literally in the ‘fog of war’ as smoke bombs confuse not just the enemy but their own side. Unfortunately, not all of Five Troop will come out of these encounters unscathed. Besides physical wounds, there are psychological ones as well. An episode I found particularly chilling is when, bivouaced for the night, Foley overhears tank crew members talking in their sleep, reliving episodes from the battle they’ve just fought.

Foley comes across as a dedicated, level-headed and steadfast leader of his troop, prepared to muck in where required and aware of his responsibility for keeping up morale (sometimes at the expense of his own dignity). I really enjoyed seeing the camaraderie between the members of the troop, each with their nickname.

The story is peppered with army slang. For example, we learn that a ‘brew up’ is something more deadly than stopping to make a pot of tea (although a more heartwarming occasion involving tea occurs when Five Troop reach Eindhoven).

At the end of the book Foley muses to a comrade, ‘I was just thinking… Do you think anybody would want to read a book about what we’ve done?’ The answer to that is an unequivocal yes.

In three words: Authentic, immersive, fascinating

Try something similar: Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob

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About the Author

John Foley (1917–1974) served in the British Army from 1936 until 1954. He attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and passed out from officer training in 1943. Foley became a troop commander in the 107th Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps (King’s Own), and was awarded an MBE for his service in North-West Europe. Later Foley worked in public relations and was an author, broadcaster and scriptwriter. He died in 1974.