Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?: A powerful true story of love and survival

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Then there was the constant placing of the author at the centre of some heroic piece or other. 200 escapes? Really?

Here's where I have questions. Did the author JUST write what Horace told him, like, word for word, or did the author get the story and like most ghost writers, shape it into a book. Though it was ghost-written by Ken Scott, he stated he literally only acted as Greasley‘s fingers and typing out the book for the latter, aged 89 at the time, was heavily afflicted with arthritis. While Greasley does begin by providing some context for himself and the political climate he was facing at the time, it doesn’t take long for him to begin discussing the rushed preparations he was forced to undertake to join the army. After seven weeks of training, we see him joining with the 2nd/5th Battalion Leicester, and his capture when he found himself facing the might of the German army with nothing but a few rounds in his pouch. PDF / EPUB File Name: Do_the_Birds_Still_Sing_in_Hell_-_Horace_Greasley.pdf, Do_the_Birds_Still_Sing_in_Hell_-_Horace_Greasley.epub

In short, Greasley tries his best to make us understand the conditions under which he and his comrades had to make due, and the effect is quite powerful, even if you’ve read this about this subject matter already. There is definitely a whole lot of darkness to trudge through in this book before we see any light, and in my opinion, despite not being an author, Greasley made good use of his limited wordsmithing abilities to accurately convey how he perceived the unfolding events. The Light of Love Horace Greasley escaped over 200 times from a notorious German prison camp to see the girl he loved. This is his incredible true story.

Then there's the blatant homophobia, sexism, misogyny, and racism to contend with. Saying awful things like "the mixed-breed Welshman named Darkie Evans" may be saying one needs to read this within the context of the time period, but saying the Nazi guard raping the male prisoners because he "couldn't control his homosexual urges" is bullshit. That's not how that works, you homophobic asshole. Sorry... homophobic and racist asshole. Horace's war didn't last long. . . On 25 May 1940 he was taken prisoner and so began the harrowing journey to a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland. Those who survived the gruelling ten-week march to the camp were left broken and exhausted, all chance of escape seemingly extinguished.From the moment we are taken on the ten-week death march to the prison camp in Poland, Greasley assaults our senses with vivid descriptions of all the inhuman suffering he and his fellow prisoners had to endure every day, every hour, and every minute of their trip. The author said people tell him all the time about "great stories" he should write. Someone told him about Horace, and he thought, I'll talk to the old codger, see what he has to say, humor him. Then was riveted for hours by the story and decided to write it. It’s hard to know if an editor even glanced at this novel or they had adjectival dyslexia, considering the constant tedium, clunky sentences, and repetitive conversations. Instead of allowing the reader to assume that the two people in the scene are in-fact talking to one another, each has to sign off with the other’s name: ‘Can I have a haircut Jim?’, ‘Yes you can Flapper’. ‘How are you Jim?’ ‘I am good Flapper’. Gripping stuff. Nobody Had Seen Him [Charlie Cavendish] Leave; He’d Simply Disappeared During The Night. He Was Never Seen Again. He Had Given His Life Voluntarily To Save His Friends And Comrades” - Just One Of The Ordinary Hero’s Who Helped Defeat The Nazi’s. Horace was a sexually driven man, from his accounts, I believe he loved to love and be loved. To remove this characteristic from the plot line and character of Horace would’ve been dehumanising for him, as it is an essential component of the book. Horace himself doesn’t sound much like a contemporary “hero” or even a gentleman in many cases, his lust for sex is clear and these scenes are vivid and descriptive.

Book Genre: Autobiography, Biography, Historical, History, Holocaust, Memoir, Nonfiction, Romance, War, World War II This quote (which is meant to be the thoughts of a close friend in the book) kind of sums up the way that Horace (Jim) is consistently described throughout the book, “Jim Greasley was almost certainly one of the unsung heroes in the Second World War. He was the hunter, the gatherer, the engineer, the smuggler, the lover and the fighter. He was the most stubborn bastard he’d ever met.” These sorts of descriptions are pretty constant.

Even in the most horrifying places on earth, hope still lingers in the darkness, waiting for the opportunity to take flight.