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Hugo Young

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In this acclaimed political biography, Hugo Young traces Thatcher's journey from her apprenticeship...

The Watchers

Neil Spring

4.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

A chilling tale based on true events from the bestselling author of The Ghost Hunters - now a major...

Adam Colclough (3 KP) rated Harry's Game in Books

Mar 6, 2018

Harry's Game

Gerald Seymour | 2015 | Thriller

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A chillingly believable thriller about the 'troubles'. (0 more)

Dangerous Games

London at the height of the IRA’s campaign on the British mainland and a government minister is assassinated, orders are send down from the highest level that retaliatory action must be taken. Gerald Seymour’s ground breaking 1975 novel tells the story of the resulting operation, in which a British agent is sent undercover in Republican Belfast.

For the most part thrillers are the literary equivalent of Danish pastry, enjoyable but not made to last. A few, and ‘Harry’s Game’ is one, are more substantial fare, food for the mind that may give you indigestion.

On one level it is a book in the tradition established by Frederick Forsythe, fiction played out as fact allowing the author to draw on his journalistic background. Seymour goes beyond this by creating characters who aren’t simply stock heroes and villains. Instead they are human beings engaged in a struggle that is squalid and futile rather than heroic and purposeful.

This combines to give a grimly believable picture of daily life in Northern Ireland at a time when a single word or action out of place could have deadly consequences. He also writes well about the machinations behind the scenes on both sides, with the British political and military establishment struggling to fight an undeclared war they don’t understand; and the IRA high command masking the brutality of their actions behind misty eyed romanticism.

Brutal, believable and still relevant more than forty years after it was first published this is a novel that is very much worth reading, even if doing so can be unsettling.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Zulu (1964) in Movies

Mar 2, 2018 (Updated Mar 2, 2018)

Zulu (1964)

1964 | Classics, Drama, War

7.1

(16 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Politically somewhat problematic tale of stoic imperial soldiers blasting the hell out of disgruntled African tribesmen isn't quite as bad as it sounds, also made a star out of Michael Caine. Based on the true story of the battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879, at which 150 British soldiers fought several thousand Zulu warriors to a standstill.

Made at the time as a piece of aren't-we-great jingoism, Zulu still stands up well as a stirring war movie and a story of men finding common ground under pressure. Good performances from Caine and Stanley Baker (who was the actual star at the time). Many memorable moments, too, such as the sing-off between the two armies. The Zulus are actually treated with respect, as shrewd and honourable fighters. Chief Buthelezi (later a minister in the South African government of Nelson Mandela) plays his own great-grandfather.