$3.71
Historical Fiction
‘Based on the true and tragic tale of one man's life in peace and in war.’ Gerald Davies, the eponymous hero of the novel has a hard upbringing, his mother is forced into an asylum by his father who has taken up with a woman half his age. Unknown to Gerald, the person he knows as his aunt is actually his real mother. To escape, Gerald joins the RAF. He trains to be a pilot observer. Gerald is attached to 211 Blenheim Bomber Squadron and is sent to the Western Desert campaign. He is injured and taken to hospital in Alexandria where he meets Pilot Officer Roald Dahl, who has been injured in a crash flying his Gloster Gladiator. He also has an encounter with other famous people who played their own part in the conflict, including Syd Lawrence (he of orchestra fame) who, coincidentally, lived and was brought up, just a few streets away from Gerald’s home in Shotton. During the Greco-Italian War he famously goes missing for several days, being shot down over Corfu. His family think he is dead. Meanwhile, Gerald and crew are being wined and dined by the people of Corfu and meet the famous Spiro Amerikanos, who famously befriended the Durrells (as written about in ‘My Family and Other Animals’ – by Gerald Durrell) on the island when they lived there pre-war. You couldn’t make it up if you wanted to! From this episode, Gerald gained fame in his own right in 1940, with nationwide press coverage, when he proposed to his girlfriend via the press - this tragic relationship also forms part of the story. Gerald always carried a photograph of ‘Susan’ and when he crashed on Corfu in 1940, he blamed the fact he’d lost the photograph of Susan as the cause of his bad luck. Things get worse when Germany declares war on Greece on 6th April 1941. On Easter Sunday, 13th April tragedy strikes when all six Blenheims sent to tackle the German advance pouring into Greece are shot down. Gerald is tragically killed. This is a true story based on the life and exploits of my uncle. This is a true story based on the life and exploits of the uncle of the author. The book contains contemporary plus images from my trip to Corfu in 2020 where I was presented with the compass from my uncle's crippled aeroplane. Foreword to Gerald’s War by Sir David Jason