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In Love and War is a book of reconstructed memories. Written by a son trying to re-connect with his long dead father. It is driven by questions un-asked and opportunities missed.
In Love and War is the gripping account of one man’s war. Aged nineteen he was wounded on the beaches of Dunkirk, captured in North Africa, escaped from his PoW camp, walked 500 miles to rejoin his regiment and fought in Italy until the end of the war. Then, while spending two years in Palestine as the fate of that contested area was fought over, he met his wife-to-be for a brief few days and then pursued their passionate romance through copious love letters.
That man was my father and he told me virtually nothing about his war and I neglected to ask. This book is a belated attempt to reconstruct his story. There are some facts, some archive, a few second-hand recollections all mixed up with a great deal of imagination. Perhaps it will help me to understand the father I never really got to know.
“The overall project, to engage with his father by every means possible, is noble, and an act of filial devotion that gives meaning and spiritual significance to all the detail. I admired the writerly technique, particularly the triple interweaving of dramatic scenes in which Bethell places himself as an unseen onlooker, factual stuff gained from research and official records, and then those love letters – what a treasure trove! All held together by his touching letters to his father. This variation of texture makes the book wonderfully readable.”
Paul Ashton Author: A Practical Guide to Bee Culture by Sherlock Holmes and A Puritan at Les Beaux
More reviews below
Throughout the text I was very touched by the relentless search for documentary evidence that would illuminate episodes in his father's life: and what a life that was!
The detailed resurrection of his war years was quite extraordinary. The letters to his father, the authorial narrator and the imaginary witness of events in the past worked well together. The imaginary witness device (with camera) served well to signal to the reader the heart-felt attempt to honour his father's life and bravery.
The wonderful multiple narratives drove me on to read the whole book in one sitting
It was a real page turner that taught me lot about love and war.
Michael Simons Head of The English and Media Centre 1991 -2016
Well, I read it straight through last night - Completely enthralling. The letters to Dad are pretty much pitch perfect and their 'dialogue' with the material that precedes and follows each is brilliant. Really excellent stuff. I found the 'insertion' of the author into the beaches at Bray-Dune plage or in the wrecked barges of Margate and in the 'day' at Beaulieu House plausible and riveting, Recce Ridge is a completely extraordinary piece of writing.
Sandy Balfour Author:Vulnerable in Hearts: A Memoir of Father’s Sons and Contract Brisdge.
I found it a riveting read, in terms of the overall narrative, the picture
it paints so vividly of the author’s father, of his courtship of his mother and of his relationship with his son. He comes alive - reticence and all – in the pages. The book is also, quite obviously, the result of a tour de force of detailed digging; investigation and inspired joining up of dots. sensation of “I wish I could have asked more questions, investigated more the background to the people that they were as we were growing up” resonated strongly with me. and will do with many.
Tim Stevenson Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire 2008-2021
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