Infused with a deliciously dry wit, Balchin’s novel is a perfect portrayal of the stiff upper lip - with Bill appearing just as unperturbed by his wife’s infidelity as he is by falling bombs. His marriage is equally wearing, with his wife Marcia openly involved in a long- running affair with dreamy writer Stephen.
But whereas the photographs distort the truth, Bainbridge’s diamond- bright insights reveal the horror and humour of people’s struggle to remain in control of lives ruled by random events and accident with the vivid economy of a writer at the top of her form.īuy this book at the Guardian bookshop Nigel Balchin: Darkness Falls from the Air (1942)Ī love triangle played out against the London blitz, Darkness Falls From The Air is the tale of Bill Sarratt, an urbane civil servant whose work is hampered by needless bureaucracy. Master Georgie, the confl icted hub around which the others revolve, is seen from diff erent points of view in a series of snapshots. Two photographers are among an unlikely group of Liverpudlians who embark for Constantinople and become involved in the carnage of theĬrimean war. The real intensity of Aldington’s (partly autobiographical) novel instead lies in his savage condemnation of a society responsible for the slaughter of its own men.īuy this book at the Guardian bookshop Beryl Bainbridge: Master Georgie (199 Death of a Hero perhaps lacks the relentless ferocity of its peers - details of actual physical combat account for less than half of the narrative. We soon learn that it is George’s experiences of war, triggering a deep psychological decline, which draw him towards his fate. This deeply affecting tale depicts the short life of artist- turned-army soldier George Winterbourne, who (as we are told in the opening pages) is killed after deliberately exposing himself to machine fi re. By diverting his attention away from military battle, Junghyo re-establishes the human cost of war: in this context, the real price is demonstrated by Mansik’s accelerated adolescence and the compromised sexuality of the so-called “UN ladies”.īuy this book at the Guardian bookshop Richard Aldington: Death of a Hero (1929) The devastating impact of MacArthur’s assault is seen through the eyes of local teenager Mansik, whose mother joins the prostitutes after being raped. The soldiers establish an encampment named Texas Town, receiving local women who, as a consequence, are publicly shunned as “Yankee wives”. It is September 1950, and General MacArthur - known throughout war-struck Korea as “General Megado” - has just landed his troops at
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