Nancy Wake: a Biography of our Greatest War Heroine
by Peter Fitzsimons (Harper Collins, 2001)
audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (Bolinda, 2011)
A remarkable life, given a workmanlike, mostly diligent treatment. (While doing justice to Nancy herself, Fitzsimons abandons most of her contemporaries once they pass from her orbit.) Stephanie Daniel brings echoes of her Phryne Fisher narration, elevating the audiobook beyond its prose.
The Dam Busters
dir. Michael Anderson (1955)
Compelling war film that tells its story in a straightforward fashion, allowing the drama to speak for itself (with poignant character moments pre- and post-mission, and occasional low-key, tension-relieving one-liners). The acting is unobtrusive rather than outstanding, the special effects rightly lauded.
Life after Life
by Kate Atkinson (Penguin, 2013)
audiobook read by Fenella Woolgar (Bolinda, 2014)
A long novel that does justice to its historical setting and characters but not the speculative premise (little more than an excuse to include multiple draft chapters). The whole of Ursula’s existence amounts to no more than the sum of its parts.
The Heavy Water War
dir. Per-Olav Sørensen (NRK, 2015) [subtitled] [originally ‘Kampen om tungtvannet’]
![TV poster: “The Heavy Water War” dir. Per-Olav Sørensen (NRK, 2015) [subtitled] [originally ‘Kampen om tungtvannet’]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Heavy-Water-War-2015.jpg)
Well-paced war miniseries, genuinely tense at times and with dollops of emotive face acting. The dual plots address Germany’s development of the atomic bomb and the Allies’ efforts to blow up Norway’s heavy water plant. An effective study in science/duty versus morality.
Malta Story
dir. Brian Desmond Hurst (1953)
A verisimilitudinous war story filmed only a decade after the events it portrays, and incorporating archival combat footage. Alec Guinness plays a placidly stiff-upper-lipped archaeologist turned reconnaissance pilot, doing his bit even while falling in love, one wistful eye to the future.
Darkest Hour
dir. Joe Wright (2017)
Wright tries a tad too hard, as if having to trick the audience into engaging with politics (despite their inherent drama). The score, in particular, proves relentless. Where Churchill so often is merely caricatured, Gary Oldman brings nuance. Lily James is excellent.
The Monuments Men
dir. George Clooney (2014)
An important story but largely unsatisfying as a film. The cast is split up in a piecemeal treasure hunt that lays little emotive groundwork for the big character moments. Clooney’s script promotes a ‘flippancy under fire’ humour that doesn’t really come off.
St Kilda Blues
by Geoffrey McGeachin (Penguin, 2014); audiobook read by David Tredinnick (Playaway, 2014)
Though the investigation itself is commonplace, McGeachin immerses his protagonist in the details of history, presenting a time capsule of Australian—in particular, Melburnian—culture in the late 1960s. Stolid ex-WWII bomber pilot Charlie Berlin shows mettle worthy of the character study.
The Great Dictator
dir. Charlie Chaplin (1940)
A political satire that, even at the time, carried a poignance well beyond its surface humour. Chaplin, playing a Jewish barber Hitler lookalike, struck an uneasy but quite brilliant balance between serious filmmaking (Chaplin the writer-director) and comic business (Chaplin the actor).
Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader DSO, DFC
by Paul Brickhill (W. W. Norton & Company, 1954); audiobook read by Robert Hardy (Chivers, 1991/2010)
Brickhill is firmly eulogistic (though not without cause) in detailing the extraordinary feats of double-amputee fighter pilot Douglas Bader, and also something of English life itself in the interwar period and during World War II. Robert Hardy’s audiobook reading captures the spirit.