Spoils of War: A Trans-Atlantic Tale - Couverture rigide

Rowley, Peter

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0955091500 ISBN 13 : 9780955091506

Editeur : Fydell Press, 2005

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

*** KINDLE EDITION IS AVAILABLE NOW FOR ALL UK CUSTOMERS ***

This fascinating autobiography tells of the author-playwright  Peter Rowley's transatlantic life and the tragedies involving his two English half-brothers, John and George.

The Rowleys were a wealthy family from Huntingdonshire, now part of  Cambridgeshire, who became engulfed by the Second World War. The oldest  brother, John, suffered a breakdown at Dunquerque, was jilted by his girl friend, attempted suicide, and became incarcerated in an asylum. But he was the heir, and soon-to-be Lord of the Manor of St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, and Morcott, Rutland. George remained in one of the manor houses.

The youngest sibling, Peter, was taken to America in the last convoy of the European part of the War. As an eleven year old he describes his impressions of friendly Midwesterners. His step-father, a domineering American Air Force colonel, moves Peter and his mother to an Alabama air base commanded by a general who wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on Moscow.

There are adventures in a boarding school in North Carolina, notable for its hypocrisy and repressed sexuality and an account of his undergraduate years at Princeton - described as "a glorified prep school" - including brief glimpses of Donald Rumsfeld, Ralph Nader, and Audrey Hepburn...

Gradually the truth about John's life in a sanatorium emerges, as the author resumes living in the U.K. He learns of the strange private life of this other half-brother, George... Peter becomes involved in the anti-Vietnam war movement, becoming a supporter of Dan Berrigan, the priest who burns draft board files. Before going to jail Berrigan marries Peter to a beautiful Hungarian, Terez, also a refugee from war.

The book ends with the couple trying to arrange for a well-known psychiatrist in London to treat the tragic "spoil of war," Second Lieutenant John Rowley of The Priory sanatorium in west London.

*** KINDLE EDITION IS AVAILABLE NOW FOR ALL UK CUSTOMERS ***

Revue de presse

A devastating commentary on the decline of the English upper class. --Warren Adler, author of The War of the Roses

Spoils of War is a brilliant insight in, to coin a phrase, how the other half lived. The Rowleys are never, ever dull. Mr. Rowley is sometimes brutally honest, not only about his family, but about himself...witty and always self-deprecating...a dramatic meeting with an insane relation who he had not seen for 28 years. --Veronica Webb, Town Crier (Cambridgeshire)

This lively 183-page autobiography features colorful characters that might have strayed from the pages of Evelyn Waugh...a rich contrast between Peter's globe-trotting lifestyle and the eccentricities of the English landowning class, but, through it all, the author's love for his endearing, and often infuriating, relatives shines through. --Brian Martin, Rutland and Stamford Mercury (U.K.)

Spoils of War is a brilliant insight in, to coin a phrase, how the other half lived. The Rowleys are never, ever dull. Mr. Rowley is sometimes brutally honest, not only about his family, but about himself...witty and always self-deprecating...a dramatic meeting with an insane relation who he had not seen for 28 years. --Veronica Webb, Town Crier (Cambridgeshire)

This lively 183-page autobiography features colorful characters that might have strayed from the pages of Evelyn Waugh...a rich contrast between Peter's globe-trotting lifestyle and the eccentricities of the English landowning class, but, through it all, the author's love for his endearing, and often infuriating, relatives shines through. --Brian Martin, Rutland and Stamford Mercury (U.K.)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Fydell Press
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0955091500
• ISBN 13: 9780955091506
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible