**DAILY MAIL BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019** **SUNDAY TELEGRAPH CHRISTMAS
BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019**'So blissfully good that I'd give it to a
reader of any age . . . deeply touching, unforgettable family
memoir' ALLISON PEARSON, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Uplifting and
enlightening . . . Venning has a good eye for what makes the Walker
story both unique and universal . . . Thrilling' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'Superb . . . With its sweeping narrative, readable style, sense of
humanity and breadth of research, the saga casts a highly personal
light on some of the most significant episodes of [the Second World
War]' DAILY EXPRESS 'A heart-pounding narrative that feels fresh .
. . this marvellous book also depicts a world that was soon to
vanish' DAILY MAIL 'A moving book . . . This account of one
family's experience takes us to hidden crannies of the war that
more official accounts might not bother with . . . Once read, never
forgotten' THE TIMES 'A sensationally good book . . . I see
reflections of my own family, and beyond them, like those mirrors
tilted slightly into infinity, I can see literally miles of others
lined up, inexorably linked forever by a shared experience . . .
this is an exceptional book and should be required reading in
modern history classes' JOANNA LUMLEY 'An extraordinary, compelling
picture of a family entwined in the Second World War . . . at turns
funny, sad, redemptive and tragic. Fabulous' JAMES HOLLAND 'A
loving tribute . . . Brimming with anecdote and rich in fascinating
detail' KEGGIE CAREW ~ How would it feel if all your sons and
daughters were caught up in war? What would it be like to spend six
years fearing what a telegram might bring? That was the
heart-wrenching reality faced by so many families throughout the
Second World War, including the parents of the Walker children.
From the Blitz to the battlefields of Europe and the Far East, this
is the remarkable story of four brothers and two sisters who were
swept along by the momentous events of the war. Harold was a
surgeon in a London hospital alongside his sister Ruth, a nurse,
when the bombs began to fall in 1940. Peter was captured in the
fall of Singapore. Edward fought the Germans in Italy, and Walter
the Japanese in Burma, while in London, glamorous Bee hoped for
lasting happiness with an American airman. In To War With the
Walkers, Annabel Venning, Walter's granddaughter, tells the
enthralling and moving tales of her relatives, six ordinary young
men and women, who each faced an extraordinary struggle for
survival.
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Review This Product
My review
Tue, 3 Sep 2019 | Review
by: Breakaway R.
A panoramic view of a family at war.
This is the remarkable true story of six siblings, written by one of their granddaughters, who has had access to an extensive personal and public archive.
During World War Two the Walker family were an energetic part of the war effort – two as medics on the home front, the other brothers as serving officers in Italy, India, Burma, Malaya and Thailand.
On the home front and on the battlefield their wide-ranging experience spans victory and defeat, military glory and injury, lives torn apart by the dictates of war, and the horror of being a Japanese Prisoner of War, half-starved and seriously ill, building the bridge over the River Kwai and taking part in the notorious death marches.
This is a history book that sometimes reads like a novel. It is well-researched and knowledgeable, not merely of the historical facts but also of the human toll, both physical and mental, that war exacts and how it changes everything.
The Walker family were tea planters in India who had returned to the UK to live modestly in a suburban semi. Like others, they were the backbone of Empire, and when war was declared, they all rallied to the flag.
At times the narrative gets bogged down by too much detail. It is hard to sustain empathy in the face of so much military minutiae – in providing such an encyclopaedic overview, the author sometimes fails to provide a point of view and sympathy and interest is lost. But where she soars is in her evocative descriptions of the hardships and glamour of colonial life, and the poignancy of young men, barely out of school, pitted against the most ruthless and effective army in history. Her account of Dunkirk and the build-up to it, the Blitz in London and the horror and desolation of the battlefield are excellent – pacey, vivid and engaging.
The scope of this book is so vast from the Japanese POW camps to pioneering plastic surgery on burn and bomb victims, to the surrender of Singapore, to eventual victory in Europe and Asia – there is little in this war not witnessed and lived through by the Walker family.
The author also writes with knowledge and insight into the psychological toll of war and its aftermath. Isolated and alienated, the returning POWs were told not to discuss their experiences. It is hard now to imagine such an utter lack of compassion. Also, the entrenched racism of the colonials is hard to stomach. But it is - unfortunately, an accurate description of the mores of the times and the author should be commended for not flinching from describing it.
This is not an easy read, but it is a worthwhile one. This book should be read because, in the microcosm of one extraordinary family, Annabel Venning gives us a real depth of understanding of the world that went before and the war that destroyed it.
Charlotte Gower
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
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