Tag: WW2

Book Review – Alvesdon by James Holland @TransworldBooks

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

About the Book

The village of Alvesdon has been home to the Castells for generations. But the year is 1939 and the peace and tranquillity there is about to be shattered once more by the stormclouds of war in Europe. As three generations of the family gather, they must all face the prospect of their lives being transformed beyond recognition the moment Britain declares war on Germany.

When the inevitable happens and Britain finds itself at war, the younger members of the family and farm workers are called up to fight and those who remain must battle to keep the home fires burning and the farm afloat. The gentle certainties of rural life are replaced by the urgent clamour of war, in the air, at sea and on land, where events unfold with dizzying rapidity and unexpected consequences.

Format: ebook (435 pages) Publisher: Transworld
Publication date: 13th June 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Alvesdon on Goodreads

Purchase Alvesdon from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Alvesdon takes the reader on a compelling and emotional journey through the early years of the Second World War showing us the impact of wider events on one extended family and the community in which they live.

The village of Alvesdon lies in farming country and the Castell family and their neighbours have farmed there for years. What I particularly liked about the book is the focus on how pivotal farming was to the war effort. But it involved change, some of which was unwelcome, with cattle farming having to give way to arable in order to produce wheat and barley to feed the nation. It’s just one of the changes that causes friction between Walter, known to everyone as ‘Stork’, and his father Alwyn.

Through the different characters we witness all aspects of the war effort: Stork’s eldest son, Edward, is serving in the Yeomanry; Stork’s youngest son, Wilf, is a pilot in RAF Fighter Command; Stork’s daughter, Tess, is working as secretary to General Ismay in the War Office; and Ollie, son of the Castell’s neghbours, the Varneys, is serving on a Royal Navy destroyer. Involvement in the war doesn’t end there but extends to villagers and estate workers such as gamekeeper, Tom Timbrell. And war brings new roles – ARP warden, billeting officer – and new organisations like the Home Guard.

The experiences of these characters give us an insider view of key events such as the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. And we see aspects of wartime Britain often overlooked, such as the categorisation and internment of German nationals living in the country, often for many years.

The story leaves us in no doubt that war is a brutal and bloody business that can devastate a family, destroy hopes for the future and leave individuals scarred for life – both physically and mentally. For those that lived through the First World War, there’s a profound sense of disillusionment, despair even, that the country must go through it all again. For some the war is a frustrating pause in their lives or a period of desperate uncertainty waiting for news that never comes or that, when it does, is life-changing. For others, the war creates a sense that there’s no time to lose; why wait when you have no idea what tomorrow will bring? Paradoxically, for others the war opens up new possibilities or brings about an epiphany. And what about the burden of knowing things you are unable to tell others, even if it might affect them?

The author is a renowned historian and this definitely shows in some of the vivid and detailed depictions of events. For example, this description of the experience of taking off in a Spitfire: ‘Wilf hauled himself up, stepped into the cockpit, and dropped down, half-door up, clacking shit. The familiar smell: high octane fuel, oil, rubber, metal. Chocks pulled clear […] open throttle, release the brakes and off, trundling over the grass to line up. Look each side. Clear. Open throttles wide, and off, speeding across the grass, forty, fifty, sixty miles per hour on the clock, ease back on the stick…’ A real feeling of authenticity pervades the book and you get the sense you’re in the hands of an author who really knows his stuff.

At the end of the book we know there are more years of turmoil to come, but the characters don’t. ‘Everything has been thrown up in the air and is coming down again but not landing exactly as it was before.’ Thanks to the skill of the author, by the time I reached the final chapter I had become totally invested in the lives of the characters and was left wondering what would happen to them next. This is a book just crying out for a sequel.

Alvesdon is a brilliant combination of emotional family saga and fascinating wartime story.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Transworld via NetGalley. Alvesdon is book 2 of my 20 Books of Summer.

In three words: Compelling, stirring, assured
Try something similar: Marking Time (Cazalet Chronicles #2) by Elizabeth Jane Howard

About the Author

Author and historian James Holland

James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories he has presented – and written – a large number of television programmes and series. He has a weekly Second World War podcast, We Have of Making You Talk, with Al Murray, and is Chair of the Chalke Valley History Festival. He is a research fellow at St Andrew’s University. (Photo/bio: Publisher website)

Connect with James
Website | X | Facebook | Instagram

Book Review – Dead Ground by Graham Hurley @AriesFiction @Seasidepicture @soph_ransompr

whatcathyreadnextLeave a comment
Blog tour banner for Dead Ground by Graham Hurley

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Dead Ground by Graham Hurley, published today by Aries Fiction. My thanks to Poppy at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

About the Book

1936. Anglo-Breton translator Annie Wrenne is working in Madrid when the Spanish Civil War breaks out. Annie becomes a nurse on the front line, but after falling in love with a patient, she ends up pregnant – and abandoned – by a man she thought she knew.

Annie passes the rest of the war in a haze, her only consolation her relationship with mysterious Republican fighter Carlos Ortega. Annie finds herself caught up in Ortega’s world, a web of intrigue, which leads to her recruitment into MI5.

On her first mission, Annie must pose as Ortega’s wife and head to Algeciras. Hitler’s Operation Felix – his plan to control the Mediterranean and force Churchill to the negotiating table – has been set into motion, and the ‘couple’ must help prevent the Nazis from seizing Gibraltar.

But Ortega has secretly been working for the Nationalists, part of Madrid’s Fifth Column. If it falls to Annie – and Ortega – to save the day for the Allied cause, can she trust a man who has changed sides yet again?

Format: Hardback (400 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 4th July 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

Find Dead Ground on Goodreads

Purchase Dead Ground from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Dead Ground is the ninth book in the ‘Spoils of War’ collection. The books do not run chronologically, instead each one focuses on a key event in the run-up to or during WW2, spanning the period from 1936 to the last days of the war. This non-sequential structure means books can be read in any order or as standalones. Having said that, some characters feature in multiple books, including Tam Moncrieff and Annie Wrenne who have key roles in Dead Ground. There’s also a walk-on part for a character from Last Flight to Stalingrad that neatly foreshadows his role in that book.

Annie has developed a deep love of Spain and its culture, especially the work of Goya. She is dismayed by the Spain she finds now that Franco has gained power, a Spain she almost doesn’t recognize. And in Madrid the scars of the vicious civil war are all too obvious. ‘When she’d first arrived… it had been full of promise. Now, years later, it was a grotesque shadow of its former self, an assortment of ruined buildings, feral dogs, starving kids and hospitals bursting with unfinished business.’

In a way, Admiral Canaris shares Annie’s sense of disillusionment. He has grown disgusted by what Germany has become under Adolf Hitler and appalled by the unnecessary savagery being inflicted on the population of countries overrun by the Nazis. He is concerned too at the growing influence of Himmler’s SS which threatens his own Abwehr, Germany’s military intelligence organisation. Therefore he has an interest in attempting to restrain Hitler’s wilder schemes. One such is the capture of Gibraltar, the success of which depends on the support of Franco, a notoriously difficult man to pin down. Canaris’s actions place him in a risky situation – fatally risky, as history will bear out.

Naturally the British objective is also to prevent the capture of Gibraltar, a place of great strategic value. It starts a cat-and-mouse game in which each sides seeks to influence events using all the assets at their disposal. Key to this is intelligence which is where Tam Moncrieff and Annie Wrenne come in. Tam recruits Annie, a fluent Spanish speaker, to gather information from foreign journalists based in Madrid. She comes up trumps with one particular piece of information that could change the tide of events – but will it, and does everyone actually want it to?

The author has a brilliant knack for taking real historical events, crafting a tautly plotted thriller around them and peopling it with an interesting mix of real and fictional characters. A history ‘lesson’, if you like, but in an easily digestible form. The standout character for me was the enigmatic Carlos Ortega, a skilled sniper severely facially disfigured in the civil war. Annie’s first encounter with Ortega comes just at the point where she has been cruelly betrayed by someone she thought she knew and could trust. Yet her kindness towards Ortega shows she retains an innate sense of empathy for others. Theirs becomes a partnership that you suspect might have become something more under different circumstances.

Dead Ground is a gripping historical thriller with twists and turns aplenty. I can’t wait to see where and when Graham Hurley takes us next.

In three words: Compelling, pacy, suspenseful
Try something similar: City of Spies by Mara Timon

About the Author

Author Graham Hurley

Graham Hurley is a documentary-maker and novelist. For the last two decades he’s written full-time, penning nearly fifty books. Two made the shortlist for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award Crime Novel of the Year, while Finisterre – the first in the Spoils of War collection – was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award. 

Graham lives in East Devon with wife, Lin. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Graham
Website | X