Title: The Red Fields of France

Author: Sean Spurlock

Genre: Historical Fiction

 

As Belgium and France begin to collapse under the brutal force of the German offensive in early May 1940, Winston Churchill, still tormented by the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in WW1, takes office as Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Bill Brooks, a newly married private in the 2nd Royal Norfolk Regiment stationed in Northern France and commanded by his older brother, Jameson, is flung into the apocalyptic frontline while desperately trying to rescue his French bride, Augusta, from the swiftly advancing Nazis.

Spurlock’s stunning WWII novel spans five weeks during one of the conflict’s pivotal moments. Told through Churchill and Bill’s dual narrative, the story propels the reader toward the Dunkirk beaches through both men’s agonized decision-making, maverick qualities, and grim tenacity.

Spurlock seamlessly intertwines fact and fiction. The reader is privy to the behind-the-scenes, nerve-shredding desperation of Churchill’s overarching political gambits as he battles dissent within his War Cabinet, while Bill’s narrative offers a highly subjective view of the personal consequences and impact of Churchill’s orders.

The story opens with Bill racing back to camp from Augusta’s bed, in danger of being court-martialed. Snippets of conversation are authentic and swiftly informative. Small, significant physical gestures and their attendant emotions are rendered with precision and meaning. It’s immediately captivating and immersive.

Spurlock’s prose is wonderfully accomplished and deceptively elegant, with beautifully nuanced descriptive passages. He writes with conviction and confidence, blending meticulously researched history with a compelling, deeply human story full of emotional complexity and raw despair, one that becomes affecting without mawkishness.

Spurlock ensures the story moves forward with efficiency and force. It’s a long book, but the pace never falters. He wastes little time on embroidered backstories for Bill or rehashing for Churchill, preferring to give the reader focused, and in Bill’s case, intriguing insights into the past that bear on the present.

Bill’s relationship with Jameson is close and complex. For several chapters, he exists outside Jameson’s shadow, and his devotion to the quietly steadfast Augusta is movingly foregrounded.

Nevertheless, the first chapter is laced with Bill’s guilt and sense of inferiority in the face of Jameson’s achievements, and so is the last chapter, though for acutely different reasons.

Spurlock offers a fresh, thought-provoking, and stirring portrayal of Churchill, free of pastiche, and one that, with emotive subtlety, showcases his motivations and the depth of his anguish and frustration.

The grisly carnage of battle is described with forensic clarity, unfiltered in its depiction of the physical and psychological costs, and there are some heartbreaking character vignettes.

The scenes on Dunkirk beach are viscerally intense, relentlessly piling on horror after horror. Although the historical outcome is known, the fate of Spurlock’s characters remains uncertain, keeping the reader guessing.

Chapters are nicely balanced between Churchill’s and Bill’s close third-person perspectives, with more emphasis on the fictional narrative. There are glimpses of other characters’ aspects during the action, but Spurlock never fully commits to them.

A chapter from Jameson’s viewpoint, who possibly remains too enigmatic, may have been beneficial. Further, the brief appearance of Augusta’s mother halfway through, although credible, is slightly surprising.

Notwithstanding, those chapters set in England, featuring Rosemary and Martha, Bill and Jameson’s mother, and Jameson’s wife, are wondrously evocative, effortlessly capturing the spirit of the age and the weight of unspoken dread beneath the “keep calm and carry on” surface.

In a crowded marketplace, the riveting WWII novel The Red Fields of France stands out. Spurlock grips the reader from the beginning and never relinquishes his hold until the achingly poignant conclusion. Superbly written and scrupulously researched, The Red Fields of France deserves to be a classic.

 

 

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