Dadland by Keggie Carew
Vintage, 415 pages, £8.99
Tom Carew was a hero. A madcap Irishman turned English eccentric, Carew was one of the motley crew making up SOE – theh spy and sabotage agency created by Churchill to infiltrate Axis-occupied countries and stir up subversion and general mayhem.
Carew was part of a threeperson team parachuted into France ahead of the D-Day invasion to liaise with local resistance groups and harass the Germans while the Normandy bridgehead was established. He won the French Croix de Guerre for his exploits. By the time that award came through, Carew was otherwise engaged: in the jungles of Burma, where his deeds won him the admiring nickname ‘Lawrence of Burma’.
All this was only vaguely known to Keggie Carew, Tom’s adoring daughter, and the pair drifted apart following his second marriage. They had barely reunited when Tom developed dementia. As his mind deteriorated, Keggie set herself the task of rescuing his heroic past from oblivion. She has succeeded magnificently. It is a rare book that reduces this reviewer to tears, but this beautifully written one did. Please read it.