Suzy Henderson

Right now I'm reading "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. Published in 2015, it won the Carnegie Medal for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. Blurb : A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II ‘Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.’ For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice o...

Blurb Treachery and theft lead to death – and love 1940. Teresa Bichard and her baby are sent by her beloved husband, Leo, to England as the Germans draw closer to Guernsey. Days later they invade… 1942. Leo, of Jewish descent, is betrayed to the Germans and is sent to a concentration camp, never to return. 1945. Teresa returns to find Leo did not survive and the family’s valuable art collection, including a Renoir, is missing. Heartbroken, she returns to England. 2011. Nigel and his twin Fiona, buy a long-established antique shop in Guernsey and during a refit, find a hidden stash of paintings, including what appears to be a Renoir. Days later, Fiona finds Nigel dead, an apparent suicide. Refusing to accept the verdict, a distraught Fiona employs a detective to help her discover the truth… Searching for the rightful owner of the painting brings Fiona close to someone who opens a chink in her broken heart. Can she answer some crucial questions before laying her brother'...

I'm very sad to share the news that RAF veteran and member of the infamous Guinea Pig Club, Jack Perry passed away on August 7th, aged 92. He was an amazing man, a friend to so many, a husband, father and grandfather. His outlook on life, given his own horrific injuries sustained during WW2, was simply incredible. He was helped so much by the plastic surgeon, Sir Archibald McIndoe and the men in the Guinea Pig Club whom he referred to as a 'band of brothers'. In return, Jack has given so much back, helping others similar to himself, suffering with life-changing injuries as a result of burns. Just as he was shown the pathway back to the living, he too has always tried to help others follow that path. Jack left school at the young age of fourteen and joined the Air Training Corps at sixteen. At eighteen he volunteered as air crew but was chosen for pilot training initially, before training as a flight engineer. Jack was then seconded to 6 Bomber Group and flew with a C...

In continuation of this epic Dunkirk week, please welcome author Jeremy Strozer who has written a fantastic guest post. Welcome Jeremy and thank you so much for being here. When the German tanks approached within a few miles of the almost empty and undefended port city of Dunkirk, they halted. General Rundstedt, in charge of the German forces in the area, ordered them to halt to resupply and rearm, and prepare for the next leap into France. Not satisfied with the pace at which he was advancing his army, German High Command ordered Rundstedt to attack. Hitler, asserting his authority over the General Staff, rescinded the attack order, demonstrating he, not the Generals, was in control of the German Army. Hitler’s need to demonstrate he was in charge was one factor in saving the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), as well as many of its allies, allowing them to escape through a soon to be defended and evacuated port of Dunkirk. What Hitler and his underlings did not expect is ...

Christopher Nolan’s epic new movie, ‘Dunkirk’ has created a buzz and looks set to be a box office hit, but what do we really know about Dunkirk? The biggest evacuation of military forces. The ‘little ships’ whose owners bravely volunteered to aid the rescue. The British Expeditionary Force returning home, dirty, exhausted, hungry and wounded. Relieved to be home, and yet worried that the public would brand them as cowards for running away, leaving the Germans to claim a fallen France as the victors. They need not have worried. Upon their arrival on English soil, the men of the BEF were surprised and relieved to receive a hero's welcome. But Dunkirk is far more than this – the wider picture extends beyond the beaches, beyond any physical evacuation and involved many sacrifices. When Hitler gave the order on May 9 th, 1940 to invade France, Belgium, and Holland, the Blitzkrieg forces stormed through the front lines of the Belgian and French army and Holland capitulated...

The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force took place between May 26th and June 4th, 1940. It was a miracle that around 338,000 men were rescued and brought back to Britain. It is a miracle they made it off the beach at all, given the fact that they were cornered, and stuck with nowhere to go, right in the midst of hell. While Hitler had ordered the elite Panzers to stand down, the Germans continued to shell the men on the beach and the Luftwaffe bombed and strafed from the air. It was chaos, everywhere you looked. A sea of khaki engulfed the beach as tens of thousands of soldiers milled around with nowhere to go. All just waiting amidst the confusion, amidst the bombs, while friends and comrades fell all around them, either dead or wounded. Commanding officers had no idea what was happening and struggled to find out. For the rest of the men, it seemed hopeless. They could almost see England, lying across the Channel - home.  One eyewitness recalls the sig...