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| The Forgotten War | 
 enlarge | Author: David Fiddimore
Publisher: Pan Books
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £2.35
You Save: £5.64 (71%)
New (23) from £2.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 67713
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0330446940
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780330446945
ASIN: 0330446940
Publication Date: March 7, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
1947 re-lived November 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I think this is probably the best of the Charlie Bassett books so far, though they are all pretty excellent. His writing is getting better all the time.
I think what marks this novel apart is the depth of human relationships, the way Charlie's new love interest develops (it's a shameless yet moving extra marital affair with a girl he seduces) and the moments of new understanding he shares with Grace. There is also the insightful treatment of post-war social issues such as homelessness, food rationing, emerging communism and the injustice metered out to war veterans.
Fiddimore's narrative is taut, loaded, vivid and action-packed. He populates his stories with bizarre yet fascinating characters, often placing them in comic, ironic situations.
This book brought to life a period of British history I had rarely thought about before. There are credible suppositions too, for example that the RAF were conducting profile targeting on soviet topography as early as 1947.
I really can't wait to read the next one...
Excellent!!! July 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The trilogy reaches its peak with panache. Charlie has lived in a world where truth is stranger than fiction, so where it is fiction it is extremely difficult to portray with balance and conviction and David Fiddimore has improved with each book. Does it have to remain a trilogy? There is plenty of material out there for Charlie to be involved with and plenty of decades in which it could happen. I hope to meet him again, Mr. Fiddimore, if you should ever happen across this. I'll say it again. EXCELLENT!!!
Charlie the sparks in action again; but what kind of action? May 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Another book that was hard to put down. Charlie may be moving nearer the modern age as we see how post-war England developed back toward a normal society. These episodes were foundations for some of our institutions today, all put together with the hilarious cast Charlie finds around him.
Excellent! More please. April 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The third volume featuring Charlie Bassett and his war time exploits in the RAF. This time we find him in the immediate post-war era when it was a very strange world as some sort of peace descended on the battered survivors. He becomes involved in the initial hostilities between the allies and the Soviets, the forgotten war of the title. There is also the irksome matter of the rise of communist sympathies within the West. Another masterful dialogue in the first person mode, though this time we learn that he is recalling events whilst in his eighties and living in contemporary times. The only thing that jars slightly in this episode is the relentless sexual abandon which pervades his life and those around him. Was it really like this? I suppose that would explain the baby boom at least!
Charlie's Return - eagerly awaitied and not disappointed March 10, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Set in 1947, the third volume of the exploits of Charlie Bassett sees him returning from an extended period overseas to pick up the threads of his life. After an initial hiccup which sees him thrown into jail as a deserter, he is released to work in his old trade of Radio Operator for the RAF. In this book Charlie is older and shrewder, if not wiser (especially where women are concerned).
David Fiddimore has skilfully woven facts from his own background into a fine and gripping tale. Once again the story cracks and fizzes along. He conjurs up the weariness and paranoia of the immediate post-war years with consumate skill - a world where the old rules haven't quite been abandoned, and the new ones haven't quite been adopted. A rich variety of interesting characters, some familiar from the two earlier novels, follow Charlie through the cracks in this moral landscape, in which the lead character is forced to examine his motivations whilst simultaneously staying one step ahead of the various women in his life, the Russians, and the British Secret Service.
For the third time Fiddimore has created a novel I couldn't put down. I'm now re-reading the earlier two books in the vain attempt to fil the gap that has been created since I finished it. I sincerely hope that he does indeed, as he teases us in the Afterword, put pen to paper with the further adventures of Charlie Bassett.
To anyone reading this - buy this book (and the other two), you won't be disappointed. And to Mr Fiddimore: MORE PLEASE!
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