Book #37: The Soldier Who Came Back by Steve Foster and Alan Clark
Number of pages: 300
This book (ghost-written by Alan Clark) is based around Steve Foster's research into how his father, Fred Foster, along with another soldier, Antony Coulthard, made a bid to escape from a prisoner of war camp during World War II.
Foster talks extensively at the start and the end about how he researched the book's subject matter, in a way that put me in mind of other historical books such as Laurent Binet's HHhH and Tim Butcher's The Trigger and the result gives a detailed picture of both soldiers, as well as the reality of wartime and the conditions in the prisoner of war camp. The book also felt educational, particularly the bits on how it was impossible to trust anyone (at one point, the book tells of how an innocent-looking old lady turned out to be a gestapo spy).
The middle section, which tells of the escape bid, is all taken from Fred Foster's journal, and gives the reader a great opportunity to get "into his head".
I was glad I took the trouble to read this book, because I felt like I'd learned a lot from it.
Next book: Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman)