Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
England in the Summer of 1942, defeat might have been averted, but the war is far from won. On the worst days the end of the beginning still looks dangerously like the beginning of the end. A decision has been made to take the war to the Germans through a series of daring commando raids into occupied Europe, and the most ambitious yet is about to take place at the French seaside town of Dieppe.
In the tense weeks leading up to the raid ambitious Canadian journalist strikes up a relationship with Annie Wrenne, a young woman working at the Combined Operations HQ. This brings him into contact with the men running the war and a story that will change his life forever.
In what is close to his fiftieth novel Graham Hurley delivers a painfully authentic story about war and the damage it does to individuals. He captures the nerve shredding waiting to go into action and the horrific reality of doing so with gruesome clarity. In addition, he writes well about the play of politics and personal ambition in the circle of men orbiting Churchill, each one with a plan to shorten the war, and, coincidentally, enhance his own status.
This depiction of the machinations of the powerful is given authenticity through cameos by Noel Coward, Lords Beaverbrook and Mountbatten. Larger than life figures with egos and ambitions to match, for whom the war is a golden opportunity to grab the spotlight.
In a crowded market of novels about the Second World War this and Graham Hurley’s other books on the subject stand out with their honest depiction of war and its consequences.
