Books
"Half the young men of this country are fighting flame-throwers while you hide here in the dark, fighting ghosts."
Harsh words perhaps, to describe the man who, deaf to politicians' protests, adamantly rejected Hitler's peace and eventually secured British victory. 'Never Surrender' reads first and foremost as an accurate representation of the events that led to the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk; at the same time it paints a vivid portrait of Sir Winston Churchill, a man fearful of his past and of the failure that at times seemed so imminent both to his country and to himself.
The book plugs itself as 'a novel of one man's defiance and a nation's courage', and coupled with its Michael Crichton-style cover gives it the misleading initial appearance of a lowbrow thriller. This is unfortunate. The new Prime Minister, haunted by the memory of his domineering father, realizes that while Hitler's army overruns Northern Europe, he, Churchill, knows nothing about Hitler himself. If he is to defeat his enemy he must, as his father instructed him years before, know him; to this end he employs Ruth Mueller, German refugee and expert in Hitler character analysis, and embarks, amidst much national mistrust, on a defiant policy of non-negotiation as proof that Britain will 'never surrender'.
If anyone is equipped for the difficult task of successfully combining history and fiction it is Michael Dobbs. With a prominent political past (memorably described as 'Westminster's baby-faced hit man') he investigates Churchill's stubborn sense and practice of his own political beliefs with authority and historical accuracy. The short time-span of four crucial weeks allows for fact to be interwoven with fiction in the detail needed to lend the story historical credibility. There is a strong sense of the scale of the war, from the political bickering of Lord Halifax and Joe Kennedy and America's continued refusal to intervene, to the raw reality of war through the account of a soldier, Don, in occupied France.
Dobbs is no stranger to the art of fiction: as a judge of the prestigious Whitbread award, he writes self-assuredly and with a directness that evokes that of Churchill himself. His subtle humanization of Hitler and Churchill, two great sparring partners in a war that is far from over, inspires a wider interpretation of history that will appeal to readers who think that history is primarily an impenetrable analytical science.
The book is not without its faults; the retrospective certainty of victory renders the uphill struggle on the battlefield and in Wesminster slightly inconsequential. Despite the subtle examination of Churchill as a man, it is difficult to take the introductory passage describing him as a lonely boy at school seriously. Hardcore historians may feel patronized by the clichéd implication that self-belief and courage will necessarily prevail.
Nonetheless, Dobbs introduces a serious subject in a form that is highly readable. It is to his credit that in his acknowledgements he notes that if his book does no more than attract hesitant readers to History, he 'couldn't be happier.'
13th Nov 2003