This fascinating and nostalgic book is based on the letters of six prolific correspondents in the war years. Three of them were famous members of the London scene: Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton and Freya Stark, while the other three were ordinary servicemen: First Officer Tommy Davies, medical student Donald Macdonald, and the author's father, Jack Knott, who was called up to the Royal Air Force. The book partly chronicles the author's search for his elusive father's identity. Freya Stark, fluent in at least seven languages, was an acclaimed travel writer on the outbreak of war. An eccentric who had already travelled round the Lebanon, she was appointed as the Ministry of Information's "South Arab expert" and dispatched to Egypt. Tommy Davies had served on 20 different ships by the time war broke out and wrote constantly and lovingly to his wife Dorrie. His ship the Atlantis was transformed into a hospital vessel and set sail for the eastern Mediterranean. Noel Coward was a well-known entertainer who immediately set off on a tour of the European capitals, but meanwhile he had also been recruited as an agent reporting back on the morale he found among his audiences, and this led to his being constantly tailed round by suspicious local counter-espionage operatives. Cecil Beaton was a celebrated society photographer, initially assigned to an air-raid precautions role but soon dispatched with his camera to Cairo. Donald Macdonald also headed for Cairo on graduation as a doctor. Jack Knott was in Egypt too, and like all three famous writers passed through Habbaniya RAF base in Iraq. A superbly told account of six lives sharing similar experiences from very different perspectives. 15.2 x 23.6cm, 254pp, black and white photos.
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