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7 Obras 677 Miembros 9 Reseñas

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Incluye el nombre: Rankin. Nicholas

Obras de Nicholas Rankin

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In 1940, the three mile long, 1400 foot high Rock of Gibraltar was the last Allied fortress in Europe.

Owned by Great Britain and claimed by Spain and coveted by Hitler,
it quickly became a symbol of Good over Evil.

While Ranklin delivers a comprehensive WW II history, dates are often in confused sequence.
As well, readers may wonder what his detailed emphasis on homosexuality in the novels of Anthony Burgess
has to do with The Rock or WW II.

Even stranger is no mention of The Holocaust following the end of the War.

Questions still unanswered:

1. Why did Britain's 3 forces - Army, Navy, and Air Force - not want to unite to defeat Axis at beginning of War?

2. When they were legally and honorably pledged, why did they not defend Ethiopia?

3. Why did they continue to allow Franco's ships through to attack the Democratic Republic of Spain?

4. Why did Britain refuse to send coal or fuel to this part of Spain?
… (más)
½
 
Denunciada
m.belljackson | May 20, 2020 |
A decent book that gets quite a bit better by the middle. Fans of war lit would find it an easy stroll.
 
Denunciada
Mithril | otra reseña | Apr 27, 2020 |
This is the story of 30 Commando, who during WW2 collected all sorts of naval intelligence initial by running pinch raids against boats and ships.

It was formed with the support of Flemming, assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence. The first raids and operations were disastrous, many Canadians died in one operation in Dieppe, but as the training improved, the material and information that they collected got better. AT the end of the war they were collecting tons of documents as the allies swept across Europe.

Flemming was intimately linked with 30 Commando, picking targets and working with other intelligence organisations to make the most of the data collected. Rankin links the things that he did during the war with the people, themes and equipment that he uses in the Bond books.

A lot of the book is fascinating, I was not aware just how close we were to failure on some of these raids. That said, the book is disjointed, and at certain points confusing with lots of people being written about. It could have benefited with a stronger narrative.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
PDCRead | otra reseña | Apr 6, 2020 |
This is quite the book. You need to read it slowly, as he constantly jumps from his research, to RL Stevenson and Borges. There are times when it can be a bit confusing. However, on the whole, it does give a very good picture of RL Stevenson, and lifts him considerably from being just the author of a few popular books.

I did not even know of his poetry, and this is superb.

What I also like, is Nicholas travelling after RLS, and this brings the biography to life.

The introduction, with Borges, the stone and the writing on dreams, is a brilliant way to get into the book.
It ends with the stone, and this brings about a fitting end to the book.
at the end, we are left with a sense of RLS, of Fanny, and his writings, in a deeper sense than I would ever have known otherwise
He make RLS human, and touchable
… (más)
 
Denunciada
RajivC | 2 reseñas más. | Mar 27, 2016 |

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Obras
7
Miembros
677
Popularidad
#37,312
Valoración
½ 3.5
Reseñas
9
ISBNs
30
Idiomas
1

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