They Have Their Exits

Description

The Author, who as a senior member of Mrs Thatcher's Government was tragically assassinated by the IRA, had the most distinguished of war records. Wounded and taken prisoner in the desperate fighting at Calais in 1940, he became a compulsive escaper and the first one of the very few to make a 'home-run' from Colditz Castle. Thereafter he rejoined the fighting serving in France and Holland before becoming a member of the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremburg War Crimes trials. There he was to meet the most notorious members of the Nazi hierarchy as they faced justice and, in many cases, death. For the quality of its writing and the breadth of its author's experiences, They Have Their Exits is arguably the finest memoir to emerge from the Second World War, and one for which the sobriquet 'classic' seems wholly inadequate. AUTHOR: Airey Neave pursued a high profile political career, becoming Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's closest confident before his assassination.

Airey Neave pursued a high profile political career, becoming Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's closest confident before his assassination.

I first read "They Have Their Exits" in the late 1970s when I was about 11. It was an old yellowing, fragile 1950s paperback copy bought cheaply from the church jumble sale. The man himself was still alive then, although as a young boy I didn't really know who he was. It was a shock a few months later to hear on the TV news about his murder in a car-bomb attack. In recent years I kept meaning to re-read the book which surely has to be one of the most famous of all WW2 escape stories. The latest paperback edition arrived and am happy to say it up to the usual high production standards of Pen & Sword. All in all an excellent read of one of the classic stories to come from WW2. According to the back cover all the royalties from this edition are being donated to 'The Airey Neave Trust' so that's an even better reason to buy a copy. www.ww2talk.com and Heritage-Group.com