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Summary:

This is a memoir-cum-biography, the true story of a daughter striving to reclaim her Dad from the grip of dementia, and her discoveries of who her father really was. Her father was a leading figure in the Jedburgh’s, a secret guerrilla-type force operating behind enemy lines in WWII France and Burma.

Main Characters:

Tom Carew: The Dad, a “mad Irishman��, and self-described good terrorist who fought the hidden battles of WWII and Burma, only to meet a grimmer foe in dementia.

Keggie Carew: The daughter, who undertakes the journey with her Dad.

Minor Characters:

Stepmother: Carew’s third wife, an unsympathetic figure, and has unhappy relationship with the author.

Plot:

This is a story of two halves, both of which are fractured.

First Half:

We are given the family history of Tom Carew, an unsung hero of the Second World War. Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1919, his family moved to England when he was two, fleeing the torching of the Big Houses where his father worked.

In 1943, Carew joined the SOE [Special Operations Executive] as a Jedburgh, as a specially-trained infiltration agent, their motto being “Surprise. Kill. Vanish��. The name Jedburgh reputedly comes from a train stopover town in Scotland by the group’s commanding officer, when looking for a name.

They were usually three man teams, comprising an SOE agent, an American OSS [Office of Strategic Services], and a native French speaker (member of the Free French). These men were parachuted into German-occupied France, where by linking up with the local Maquis, and operating covertly, they create huge disruption and confusion miles behind enemy lines, delaying the movements of troops and materiel into the battle zone.

They were not only well-trained terrorists, but needed to be politically astute as well, navigating the local “power struggles�� of the Maquis, and the trickle-down effect resulting from the interference of national and international politicians.

Carew next operates in Burma, helping the Burmese (Aung San and others) to rid themselves of the occupying Japanese force. This was an increasingly-fraught political situation too, as the British Indian Civil Service was utterly opposed to arming the nationalist-leaning Burmese resistance, yet Mountbatten had to use them in order to win his war. Carew was firmly on the side of the anti-colonialists. There is a lovely image, where the former governor Dorman-Smith lies in Rangoon harbour, still believing he holds the whip-hand, offering the Burmese a move towards self-government in the future, but to remain under direct British rule until then, and the Burmese politely but firmly refusing, as they already have the power, and are not going to give it back..

Throughout these stories of the war, where we have no doubt left about the man’s bravery, intelligence, charm and leadership abilities, the author intersperses the current life with her dad in his last years, and tells us why and how this book came about. He suffers from dementia, and she is slowly losing him to that fog.

Second Half:

The second part of the book deals with Tom Carew’s post-war life, and the book really takes off in its exploration of the importance of choosing the path to travel, and the reasons we do so. A defining phrase of this book will be the author asking how her father, with everything going for him, conspired to “make an almighty cock of it��.

She details the post-war restlessness of her father, who could not adjust to his cushy Gibraltar existence of training recruits, so packed it in to return to jobless cold Fareham in England, where there was even less demand for former guerrilla fighters.

The money troubles, and managing a family of four, eventually caused Carew’s second wife (and the author’s mother) to have a breakdown. By the time she recovered, the marriage was long over. You have to feel for poor Jane, who had it all in Gibraltar and Trieste, and never expected to be incarcerated in an asylum.

Carew then married “the Stepmother��, with whom the author has a very hostile relationship, and lost years of contact with her father, until the woman died. Over this period, the author reveals a little of her own life and travels, but everything is always overshadowed by her father, and her hero-worship of him. There is a story of a “final�� family dinner, with both Jane and Stepmother attending, and Jane impresses the author with her dignity and class. Carew had by this time started and failed in numerous business ventures, had never had a job on “civvy street��, but then set up a successful career consultancy business.

What I Liked:

- Finding put about a fighting force I had no idea existed
- The writing is excellent, and really draws you into the story
- The quality and depth of the research shows it really is a work of the heart

What I Didn’t Like:

- The obvious hero-worship. He was an incredible man, but I think someone not as close to him would give a more rounded picture of him.
- Would have liked to know a little more about the Step-mother relationship �� why was she so bad, and how did the twice-married Carew put up with that?

Overall:

The author has done an exemplary job in re-constructing her father, both in his war and his personal life. He comes across as a proto- James Bond, with his derring-do and making-do. The Citroen incident is an indicator of his devil-may-care attitude to life.

This is a very moving biography-cum-memoir, made even more so by the fact of his dementia. While there were many comedic moments, it is in fact a long, sad slow goodbye, but at least the author has given him an enduring heroic life in this book. I think it can be summed up just as the author wrote:

“Be More Fearless. Be Wilder. Be Braver. Be Different. Think Differently. Be Out of the Ordinary��.

It is an excellent story of keeping it together while losing it all, a family suffering from self-inflicted turmoil, and ultimately of love of a daughter for her hero father, and I would definitely recommend it.