When George Martin joins the crew of the Royal Navy frigate, HMS Virtuous, he is keen to start his new life at sea, but after trips escorting relief cargoes to the stricken island of Malta, he soon realises that life on a warship is anything but easy.After the invasion of the Soviet Union by German forces in 1941, George finds himself on the Virtuous’s most perilous journey yet, as it forms part … forms part of a convoy heading to Russia. Hunted by Nazi U-boats, surface ships and the Luftwaffe, the crew must endure its greatest foe – the harsh Arctic weather. With temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees Centigrade and violent storms threatening to sink the ship, George endures the harsh reality of war, whilst at the same time pondering his uneasy relationship with the mysterious Glenda, the girl he has left behind.
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This book gripped me all the way through. George Martin was a young working class man from Liverpool when he joined the navy, and most of the book is about the horrendous Arctic conditions of his voyages to Murmansk, a period spent in this desolate, war-torn part of Russia in what passed for a hospital, the destruction of his ship, and a hellish few days on a lifeboat in unbelievably cold conditions, in which several of his friends perished.
It is also, of course, a story about those friendships and the comradeship that exists in the most testing of times. The book is obviously so well-researched; what struck me most was what the human mind and body will endure. Sometimes the book is quite poetic – philosophical, even. George’s first impression of the Arctic ocean, when he hears the songs of the whales beneath the sea:
‘We were invaders, after all. All of us. Both us and the Germans should not be here. This place did not belong to any of us.’
John McKay’s writing is so conversational and easy to relate to that I felt as though I was reading a memoir, much of the time. George was, to me, a real person, not a fictional hero. Threaded through the tales of life at sea is the story of his home life in Liverpool, in particular a relationship with a girl called Glenda. This secondary story is interspersed at exactly the right times, and in the end, the two stories converge.
It really is a terrific book. Highly recommended.
A novel written with such intensity that I felt the cold. Yet, I nearly didn’t read it. The novel starts in 1993, and I don’t like the grandfather or grandmother telling their stories or the grandchildren setting out to discover their grandparents’ involvement in the war. But I came back to it, mentally telling Mr. McKay that he could cut out all that beginning with his family. I found it tiresome. It would be enough to have George see the man and wonder, then get on with the story.
That said, I really wanted to read about Arctic convoys. John McKay’s impeccable research enabled him to give excruciating detailed accounts, so real the reader literally shivers. He shows how the young George evolves from an eager youth, “All that concerned me was I did a good job and contributed something positive.” to a man able to endure sufferings beyond what we can imagine and develop compassion and empathy. They were so young all those recruits yet in the space of a few months they would reflect on life and death, like George seeing the mangled battleships sinking and totally disappearing “as though it never happened.”, and wonder if anyone would know about them if they were not rescued in time.
There is a poignancy in the writing when George sees the stoicism of children wounded in the air raids. McKay masterfully portrays the brotherhood of sailors, that friendship which binds them all, as their lives depend on one another.
The chapters of the harsh Arctic journey are interspersed with memories of his time at home with a girlfriend of sorts and provide a lull in the relentless weather.
A novel well-worth reading.