{"id":5804,"date":"2024-07-09T09:06:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T16:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5804"},"modified":"2024-07-09T09:06:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T16:06:51","slug":"david-lewis-a-jewel-in-the-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/david-lewis-a-jewel-in-the-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lewis: A Jewel in the Crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Secret Churchill Files #1<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Because I\u2019d thought I\u2019d seen it all before, I had low expectations when I picked this book up. WWII, the Blitz, Churchill, feisty undercover heroine, check, check and check, we\u2019ve all been there and read that, right?\u00a0 But as it turns out in the right hands WWII can still be fascinating, and with a vibrant truly larger than life character like Winston Churchill, Lewis creates a fresh, vivid read that will have you flipping pages quickly.\u00a0 A policewoman when the book opens, heroine Catrine Colline, a working-class Welsh girl with a socialist bent, is soon recruited by \u201c512,\u201d an undercover outfit composed only of women dedicated to furthering Britain\u2019s war efforts.<\/p>\n

512 may be fictional, but it bears a strong resemblance to Churchill\u2019s SOE (Special Operations Executive), an undercover operation (made up of many women) who often served in Nazi occupied France.\u00a0 That\u2019s not Caitrin\u2019s remit, however, as she\u2019s interviewed and recruited by Churchill himself to team up with a blue blood to drive the crown jewels to a waiting ship that will whisk them to Canada for the duration of the war.\u00a0 Class friction results when she and the aristocratic Hector Percy-Neville, Lord Marlton, set off on a road trip through the stately homes of Britain with their ultimate destination being the waiting Canadian ship.\u00a0 First, however, they have to swing by the Tower to collect their cargo.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s a known fact that the crown jewels actually spent the war in a biscuit tin buried under Windsor Castle, so, if history is to be adhered to, this trip is clearly not going to proceed as planned. Staying at stately homes has a two-fold purpose, as the two are also ferreting out for Nazi sympathizers among the swells. They find a few of them as well as an array of opinions about the war and England\u2019s role in it, but it\u2019s not until they are tantalizingly close to their final goal that everything goes sideways.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a spoiler, and, no worries, the precise fashion that things go sideways will not be revealed in this review. Suffice it to say, however, that our Colline finds herself on horses, bikes, boats and airplanes as she continues her quest. Some of the aristocracy the two meet are charming, and some not so charming, but none is as memorable as Hector\u2019s own mum. Fully realized and indelible, all the characters in this novel stand out like gems in the fugitive crown the main pair are toting around. Not just the main characters, either\u00a0 \u2013 the impression that two women who appear toward the end of the book made on me will remain for a long time.<\/p>\n

But this is also a wonderful adventure story.\u00a0 As Churchill gets frustratingly spotty news of their progress, we readers observe him on the roof during the worst of the blitz, brandy and cigar in hand, watching the bombs fall and observing history as it explodes. No matter how much I read about Churchill, I never tire of learning about him, and of course the mere presence of his oversized personality can\u2019t help but spice up the proceedings.<\/p>\n

This is a suspenseful, entertaining, historically enlightening read which contains two wonderful main characters and a fabulous story.\u00a0 A great debut, it made me devoutly hope that I can enjoy a second instalment in the near future.\u00a0\u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secret Churchill Files #1 Because I\u2019d thought I\u2019d seen it all before, I had low expectations when I picked this book up. WWII, the Blitz, Churchill, feisty undercover heroine, check, check and check, we\u2019ve all been there and read that, right?\u00a0 But as it turns out in the right hands WWII can still be … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,4],"tags":[1747,1749,1746,1218,1748,162,1750,149],"class_list":["post-5804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-in-series","category-reviews","tag-a-jewel-in-the-crown","tag-crown-jewels","tag-david-lewis","tag-debut","tag-john-scognamiglio","tag-kensington-books","tag-winston-churchill","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5806,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5804\/revisions\/5806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}