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William's Book Blog
Mostly book reviews. Very rarely I'll allow William Campbell Powell (author) to write a blog entry on publishing activity, but he's under orders to keep that stuff over on his Facebook page and on http://williamcampbellpowell.com
Currently reading
Zeroboxer
Zeroboxer
Anansi Boys
Zombie Elementary: The Real Story
Progress:
99 %
The Angel's Game (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #2)
Progress:
6/504 pages
The Longest Week: What Really Happened During Jesus' Final Days
Progress:
43/310 pages
Wings Day
Originally published in 1968, this biography of Wing Commander Day (RAF) focuses entirely on the war experiences of his subject, captured in the early days of the war, and spent the next five and a half years as Senior British Officer (SBO) in various POW camps, but not above joining escapes himself.After taking part in the Great Escape, Day was recaptured and transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, from which he also escaped.
The book is written as a story, rather than as a work of scholarship, and the back cover notes that the author, Sydney Smith (Squadron Leader Eric Sydney-Smith RAF), was imprisoned alongside Day for four years. So the author's first-hand knowledge both of Day and of the experience of the POW comes through strongly.
However Smith very much tells Day's story, not his own. Dates are not important for Smith - you can read pages without knowing more than the year or the season when these events took place.
At times the view is the somewhat abstract view of a high-ranking SBO, but the narration of the experience of Sachsenhausen is deeply personal.
Recommended.