Book review: Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson – a challenge to second world war myths
Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson
Reviewed by Sofka Zinovieff
Reviewed by Sofka Zinovieff
As Britain starts
to extricate itself
from Europe’s embrace, it is timely to examine the intricacies of this
love-hate relationship at another point of crisis. Last Hope Island describes
the many continental Europeans who, escaping Nazi occupation, found refuge in
Britain during the second world war. Their stories are exciting, moving and
horrifying, with foreign monarchs, spies, scientists and soldiers attempting to
continue their battles from a vulnerable island that did not appear well placed
to resist the probable German invasion. Lynne Olson, an
American historian, has written many books about the war, and her clear-eyed
prose challenges popular myths about Britain’s “finest hour”. She explores the
remarkable bravery and ingenuity of these exiled European allies, but there are
enough British failures and betrayals to make for hard, even upsetting reading.
Although it is a brick of a book with a daunting number of subjects, it skips
along, focusing on the vibrant personalities and their extraordinary stories.
King Haakon VII of
Norway was known to his people as “Mr King” for his egalitarian approach.
Hitler was infuriated by the initial defiance of “this ridiculously small
country and its petty king!” After dramatic car chases, and being strafed by
German planes through glacier-bound central Norway, the tall, thin 67-year-old
reluctantly fled his country with tons of Norway’s gold reserves and wound up in
London. Just as democratic in character and equally passionate about her people
was Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. “I fear no man in the world but
Queen Wilhelmina,” Churchill quipped. Both monarchs relished informality and
played crucial roles in their nations’ wartime affairs. They took to
broadcasting popular messages of resistance from the BBC, whose rapid
transformation from stuffy and insular to multilingual beacon of liberty
occupies a fascinating chapter of this book. As Haakon arrived there
to speak, the receptionist asked, “Sorry, dear –
where did you say
you were king of?”
Olson has written
about Polish fighter pilots in Britain in another book, A Question of
Honor, and describes the disdainfully xenophobic mistrust of the British
towards the 8,000 Polish airmen (and 20,000 soldiers). Before long, however,
the pilots’ bravery and military successes were appreciated, as was their
flirtatious hand-kissing. London was a city that didn’t forgo cocktail parties
or romancing, even when the bombs were dropping, as described so well in Lara
Feigel’s The Love-charm of Bombs and Matthew Sweet’s The West End Front. Like the Polish General Sikorski, the
Czech President Beneš was given asylum, even if he was downgraded from a fancy
palace in Prague to a boring bungalow in Putney. The British government, having
ordered Beneš not to fight, then blamed him for giving in to Hitler too easily.
While the Nazis continued their atrocities in Prague, the Czech president was
practically ignored and consistently humiliated in London.
Among the most
enticing characters in the book is the dashingly piratical Charles Howard, 20th
Earl of Suffolk. Bearded, tattooed and with a penchant for ivory-handled
pistols, champagne and suites at the Ritz, he also had a serious background in
science. He rescued from occupied Norway enough canisters of “something called
heavy water” to delay Nazi development of nuclear bombs – the haul was hidden
in Wormwood Scrubs prison, then Windsor Castle. The earl rescued scientists
from France as well and later progressed to dismantling bombs, eventually
being blown up and leaving no trace but his silver cigarette case... read more:
